


The Rest Is Still Unwritten

by sofie_n



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, And she can regenerate, Angst, As you can see it's super original but I wanted to write it so here we fucking go, Bisexual Female Character, Confusing plotlines will make sense later, Drama & Romance, F/F, F/M, Minor Tenth Doctor/Rose, OC and Martha are best friends, OC doesn't meet Doctor in right order, OC is daughter of Ian and Barbara, Polyamory, Rating May Change, mostly follows canon, or maybe not, some mild swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 22:25:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 106,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12285534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sofie_n/pseuds/sofie_n
Summary: Gemma needed the Doctor's help to find out what was wrong with her, how she had somehow managed to regenerate. What she didn't want was to get sucked into his world of trouble and adventures, but time is a bitch and it will drag Gemma by the hair to make sure she stays by the Doctor's side. And maybe it's not actually that bad...





	1. The End and the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first time posting a fic on AO3, so please take it easy on me if I've made a horrible mistake. I know the concept for this fic is not the most original, but I enjoy writing it so yeah... I'm gonna write until I run out of ideas. I hope you'll have fun reading it and forgive me for my punctuation. English is not my first language.

_200,100 AD_

Gemma felt strangely displaced as she finished her jump and staggered out of the small, claustrophobic room she was in. She closed her eyes against the bright light that met her and grabbed blindly for something to hold onto as her knees were about to give up on her. 

Someone caught her just before she lost her balance and hands wrapped around her arms to steady her. Gemma’s hands landed on the stranger’s chest and she instinctively clutched the leather jacket underneath the palm of her hands. 

“Are you okay?” a male voice questioned and Gemma frowned at the Northern accent. Where had she ended up this time?

“Yeah, just feeling a bit sick.” Gemma nodded and slowly opened her eyes to look at the person she was clinging onto. 

She was met by a pair of blue eyes and momentarily lost her breath, when she took in the rest of him. He wore a serious expression on his face, which seemed to be all sharp lines and edges. He was handsome, but she felt intimidated by him as well. 

“Doctor,” she breathed in relief, suddenly feeling the two hearts beating in his chest, and let go of his leather jacket to wrap her arms around his waist. 

“Where are we?” Gemma asked as she pulled away, noticing with a frown that the Doctor hadn’t hugged her back. 

Maybe he just wasn’t a hugger like one of his older regenerations. Gemma couldn’t know since it was her first time meeting this regeneration. 

“In Big Brother apparently,” the Doctor replied offhandedly and turned away before suddenly narrowing his eyes at her, when he realized she had called him Doctor. “Have we met before?”

“What d’you mean? It’s me, Gemma.”

“Gemma who?” the Doctor asked as his eyes glided over her searchingly. He found her strangely familiar, but couldn’t remember ever having met her. 

“Another new contestant? Isn’t that against the rules or something?” someone exclaimed from behind the Doctor, and Gemma leaned past him to find two women and a man staring at them. 

“Doctor, please tell me you know who I am,” Gemma pleaded quietly, ignoring the others’ outrage, but all the Doctor did was frown at her. 

“Would the Doctor please come to the Diary Room?” a computerized voice called out suddenly and a buzzing noise sounded by a door, signalling the Doctor to go through it. 

“Doctor,” Gemma tried again, begging him to recognize her, but all she got was one last look of confusion before he disoriented disappeared into the Diary Room. 

“You know him?” 

Gemma looked around to find a blonde girl by her side, looking excited and nervous at the same time. Her hair was gathered in pigtail buns, which reminded Gemma of the 90’s, and she was wearing green sweatpants and a white jumper. 

Looking down at herself, Gemma suddenly felt overdressed in her green long-sleeved dress and brown wedge-heeled boots. She had been ready to go out when she had been pulled away, but the outfit wasn’t so different from what she usually wore. 

“Yeah, but I don’t think he knows me,” Gemma told the blonde sadly and a sudden thought made tears well into her eyes. What if this was really the Doctor’s first meet with her and what if this would be her last? What if she was doomed to repeat River’s fate? 

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m sure it’s just the transmat messing with his memory. It does that for a few minutes after,” the blonde tried to comfort her, when she noticed the stricken look on Gemma’s face. 

“No, that’s not it. The Doctor doesn’t remember me, because he’s never met me before.” 

_Please don’t let this be the last time I ever see him._

\--------

_1966_

The first time Gemma Chesterton opened her eyes was on 4th July 1966 in a London hospital. She was perfectly ordinary, to her parents’ relief, and wailed like any other baby would. 

Ian and Barbara raised their daughter as normally as they possibly could, away from time travelling and monsters, but when bedtime came they didn’t tell the stories of Cinderella or The Little Mermaid. 

By age ten Gemma knew every adventure her parents had had with the Doctor by heart, but kept them to herself after three girls from year six had laughed and told her she was crazy for believing in aliens and a police box that was bigger on the inside. 

But Gemma believed in the Doctor and read everything about time travelling she could possibly get her hands on. She was eight, when her parents realized she was different, after all. 

She learned new languages without great difficulty and was able to fluently speak German, Spanish, French and Portuguese at the age of fifteen. 

Her understanding of physics and astronomy overshined her father’s before she was even admitted to Oxford University. He joked that she wouldn’t need a TARDIS to travel in time as she could simply invent her own time machine. 

UNIT tried to recruit her the day she finished her masters in mathematical and theoretical physics, but Gemma declined. Even the chance of one day meeting the Doctor couldn’t persuade her. He was like the hero in a fairy tale to her and one should never meet one’s heroes. 

Instead Gemma took a job as a physics professor at the Imperial College London; the youngest to do so at the age of twenty-seven. She moved to an apartment in London with her boyfriend, Charles, and the extraordinary woman enjoyed an ordinary life. 

It was only a couple of months after she had turned thirty-four, when it all changed. 

_2000_

It was after midnight, the sun had set hours ago, when Gemma walked down an empty street on her way home from a faculty party. She was more than a little tipsy, but had insisted on walking home to get some fresh air. 

All she registered, before she was flung into the air, was the sound of screeching tires and the yellow headlights, which suddenly lit up the road in front of her. She turned around just in time to find a car coming right towards her as it swerved dangerously. 

For a long moment everything slowed down as Gemma was bathed in light, but she didn’t have time to scream before she was thrown over the hood of the car and landed on the ground; her body limp like a ragdoll. 

The car continued down the road at a high speed and left Gemma alone in the dark. The light from a street lamp barely reached her and no one in the surrounding apartment buildings seemed to have heard the accident. 

Gemma felt strangely calm as she lay dying on the street, but she also knew that soon the adrenalin would fade enough to let her feel the pain and then the shock would kick in; effectively killing her if she didn’t bleed to death before that. 

She didn’t want to die. She really, really wanted to live. Not only for her own sake, but also for her parents, her boyfriend, all the people she cared about. 

Gemma was about to lose consciousness, when she noticed the glowing light that was slowly enveloping her. It was beautiful, like golden particles flowing through the air, but Gemma didn’t get much time to admire it before her brain caught up and all the pain signals threatened to shut down her body. 

She couldn’t scream or move; just lie on the ground and hope she would die sooner than later so it would end. She had a moment of clarity to wish that she had been killed on the spot. 

But then something changed, a small shift in the torture she was going through, and she could feel how her body started to heal broken bones and stop inner bleedings. Her gasps for breath were loud in the silence as the rib, which had punctured her lung, healed and Gemma realized she had almost stopped breathing completely. 

It wasn’t long before Gemma had healed enough to slowly get to her feet and she looked down to find that the golden particles, which now covered every inch of her, came from her. With help from the particles she was healing herself and she didn’t know how, which was an entirely new feeling on its own. 

Gemma was staring down at her glowing hands in wonder, when a new kind of pain overwhelmed her and she doubled over. It felt like she was burning from the inside. Like every cell of her body was changing and her very being was being ripped apart only to be stitched back together. 

She could feel an incredible force of energy build up inside her and when it became too much Gemma threw open her arms to push it out, letting out a soundless scream as she did. For a long moment all she saw was a bright light that seemed to burn through her and then, all at once, it ended. 

The pain was gone, but was immediately replaced by an onslaught of emotions and sensations as if she could feel everything at once. Gemma could do nothing but stand completely still as the world spun around her, only to stop so abruptly that she lost her balance and clumsily fell on her butt. 

“What the bloody hell,“ Gemma muttered as she looked down at herself and then paused when she didn’t recognize her own voice. 

Instinctively, she lifted a hand to her throat and then quickly the next one as well. Her neck felt shorter than usual. Looking down the rest of her body, she noticed that her clothes hung on her in a way it hadn’t done before and she was almost certain her legs used to be longer. 

Quickly, but with some effort, Gemma got back on her feet and stepped under a street lamp. Something was wrong with her. Either it was her brain and she was imagining things, or her body had actually physically changed. Her logic told it was the former, but she couldn’t dispute how real it all felt. 

She was shorter than before, at least five inches, and she was younger, maybe even by twenty years. Her tall and lean body with long limbs and narrow hips was gone and instead she found herself in the body of a sixteen year old girl with wide hips and short legs. 

What freaked her out the most was how keenly she could feel the changes her body had been through. Most of her organs had been replaced, probably because of the damage they had taken, and a scar she had had on the back of her hand since she was a child was gone. 

Then everything around her seemed to blur and she promptly fell unconscious. 

_2005_

Five years later Gemma took a position at UNIT as a field scientist. She was a thirty-nine year old woman in the body of a twenty-one year old and wasn’t going to start over like her parents had initially suggested. 

She had already spent enough years at Oxford and fought more than enough for her position as a professor. She wasn’t going through that whole process again. Especially since everyone would treat her like the twenty-something year old they thought she was. 

UNIT knew her secret. They had been the ones to cover up the death of Gemma Chesterton and put her through multiple tests to figure out what had happened to her. They hadn’t all been pleasant and nothing conclusive had come of it. 

The closest thing had been someone suggesting that she had regenerated; something only the Doctor, a Time Lord, was known to do. But no one could explain why and Gemma’s parents had had to repeatedly assure everyone, including her, that Gemma was definitely their daughter and not an alien. 

Which was why Gemma had finally joined UNIT. If they couldn’t give her an answer, the Doctor had to and the easiest way to find him was through UNIT. He was no longer the hero she was afraid to meet, but the expert she needed to see. 

Gemma had, after some time, grown comfortable in her new body and was satisfied with how she looked despite the drastic change. It was no longer a stranger looking back at her from the mirror. 

Her face had changed a lot, though. Her narrow nose was now smaller and more rounded, while her lips looked like they had been augmented. Her face was rounder with a wider, more defined jaw and her eyes had gone from light brown to a bright green colour. 

What had bothered Gemma the most, and still did sometimes, was the hair. Her dark brown and straight hair, which had always been easy to handle, was now voluminous and curly and… red. She was a freaking ginger. And it took a lot more work to not make it look like she had just gotten out of bed. 

She had wanted to colour it and maybe even cut it short, but her mother had stopped her, so after five years Gemma had sort of just gotten used to it. Most days she even liked it. 

It had almost been a relief when Juliet Chesterton, her new legal name, had turned eighteen and old enough to move out of her parents’ house (again). She loved her parents, but they were old, over seventy now, and living with them hadn’t exactly been easy. 

She sorely missed the independence and freedom adulthood had given her, and while her parents didn’t treat her like a teenager, she desperately longed for a place of her own. She had tried to go out and play teenager, but being a teenager in twenty-first century was much different from being one in the seventies and eighties. And the forty year olds, her actual peers, usually just dismissed her as being too young. 

_2008_

It wasn’t until Martha Jones was hired by UNIT three years later that she finally made a real friend. Their first meeting had been strange at best with Martha acting like they already knew each other until she had suddenly gone very quiet and explained that she had thought Gemma was someone else. 

Martha had travelled with the Doctor and Gemma had asked a thousand questions about the man; some of which her parents had already answered, when she was a child.

Gemma had thought about asking Martha to contact the Doctor, so she could finally get some real answers, but Martha always had a look in her eyes, when she talked about the Doctor that told her not to. Like some of the things that had happened were too painful to even remember. 

She knew travelling with the Doctor wasn’t always fun and games. He was notorious for attracting, or more likely finding, danger and had more enemies than Gemma could name. Gemma had early-on been given admittance to the Black Archives and had read the files UNIT had on him and on his companions as well. She was one of few who were allowed to leave the Archive with her memory still intact. 

UNIT also had a file on Gemma and when she had complained about not being allowed to read it to Martha, the woman had just replied with “spoilers”. 

But Gemma didn’t have to wait long before she finally learned what was actually hidden in that file.


	2. At the Start of Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I fly. To the future. And the past. In your timeline,” Gemma said slowly.
> 
> “Is this a joke? Cos I’m not laughing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky if you for some reason haven't watched them yet, in which case I question your life choices.

_2009_

Gemma walked briskly through the ATMOS factory, doing her best to ignore the way the UNIT soldiers were treating the workers as if they were all criminals, in her search for Martha. She had caught a glimpse of the woman outside, walking with a man and a woman she didn’t recognize, but had lost sight of them in all the commotion.

The two strangers had been somewhat familiar to her, but she couldn’t connect their faces to any names and had been in the middle of inspecting the work stations inside the factory, when she had heard a couple of soldiers talking about the visit of ‘the Doctor’.

She had without hesitation abandoned her work and asked everyone she met on her way if they had seen where Martha had gone. If the Doctor actually was at the factory, Martha had to be with him.

Gemma came to an abrupt stop, when she saw the two strangers standing in a room behind a curtain of clear plastic. Martha and Colonel Mace weren’t there, but they were the only two not dressed in an UNIT uniform.

Neither was Gemma, who had been called to work so suddenly she hadn’t had time to change out of her flowery dress and three inch heels. She had been given a white lab coat, and a disapproving look, when she arrived at the factory and had taken five minutes to make a shitty phone call to cancel her other plans, again.

They were both standing with their backs to her, talking quietly, when Gemma walked into the room; nodding at the soldier, who parted the plastic for her to step through.

She shifted her writing pad in her hands as she waited for a chance to get their attention, but was beat to it by the red-haired woman, who suddenly turned her head with a warm smile spreading on her face. 

“Gemma!” the woman, who had to be the Doctor’s companion, greeted and Gemma was pulled into a hug before she was able to utter her confusion.

Gemma had dropped her writing pad in surprise and her arms hung lamely down her sides as the woman stepped back.

“Er, hello, I think,” Gemma managed to get out and then looked at the man in the blue suit, the Doctor, who was grinning at her.

She didn’t have time to figure out what was going on before it suddenly was the Doctor standing in front of her, and she yelped in surprise, when he lifted her off her feet. Without thinking Gemma wrapped her arms around his neck as he spun her around and she felt breathless, when he finally put her down.

“Hello,” the Doctor said as he looked down without letting go of her and Gemma felt herself smile despite her own confusion.

When their eyes met she quickly took a step back and out the Doctor’s embrace, shaking her head to get rid of the sudden dizziness.

She had seen pictures of the Doctor in this regeneration before, but they were nothing compared to the actual Doctor, standing in front of her.

The tight, blue suit alone was enough to make Gemma flustered, but then there was also the hair, and the glasses, and the way he looked at her. Like they knew each other intimately.

“Hi, I’m, uh, Gemma, which I guess you already know… somehow,” Gemma told as she turned to the Doctor’s companion with her hand stretched out in greeting. She didn’t quite know how to handle the Doctor yet.

“Oh, I see. Haven’t met me yet. Hello, I’m Donna. Sorry ‘bout the hug,” Donna said as she took Gemma’s hand and shook it, only confusing her further. Gemma nodded without thinking and then turned her eyes to the Doctor, who was watching her with a frown.

“Shit,” Martha’s voice suddenly came from the side as she re-entered the room after having left for a few minutes. She hadn’t expected Gemma to be at the factory, so she hadn’t warned either Gemma or the Doctor about the other’s presence.

The Doctor, Gemma and Donna all turned at the sound of her voice to find Martha staring at Gemma.

“Martha, what’s going on?” Gemma asked quietly as she made her way over to her friend, glancing at the Doctor over her shoulder. He was studying her intently as if he was searching for something on her face that wasn’t there.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you would be here.”

“Perry is sick, so I was called in. And then I saw you with those two, so I went to find you.”

“Right, so this is Donna,” Martha introduced with a gesture towards the redhead, who now looked just as confused as Gemma felt, “and the Doctor.”

“He hugged me,” Gemma whispered as she leaned closer to her friends, hoping he wouldn’t hear, and she didn’t miss the look Martha shared with the Doctor, who was stood behind her.  

“Gemma,” the Doctor called softly, making her turn around, and she watched as he carefully removed his glasses. “This is the first time you’ve met me, isn’t it?”

“I get it now. Awkward,” Donna muttered to herself as Gemma nodded, remembering the story she had been told about their first meeting.

“Excuse me?” Gemma questioned with raised eyebrows, having heard Donna’s words and didn’t find them entirely appropriate even though she was right.

“Oh, I didn’t mean like that. It’s just, you told me-“ Donna started to explain, but was interrupted by a stern look from the Doctor.

“So,” Gemma began with a sigh and tilted her head in thought, “I’m guessing that somehow we keep meeting out of order? And it’s gonna get really confusing?”

Her easy understanding and apparent acceptance made the Doctor smile as he replied with a nod and Gemma couldn’t help but smile back. Maybe he already knew why she had the ability to regenerate and she could finally get some answers.

“It’s a bit funny how I waited so long to finally meet you, Doctor, and then it turns out you already know me. Of course, I know quite a bit about you as well. Ever since I was a child, I’ve heard stories about you and the TARDIS,” Gemma mused and stepped towards him.

“Good ole Ian and Barbara. How are they?” the Doctor asked with a grin and there was a reminiscing look in his brown eyes as he thought about his former companions.   

“They’re good. Getting a bit old, you know. Or don’t know, I guess,” Gemma replied teasingly as her eyes glided over his figure to his face and the Doctor lifted an eyebrow in response.

“Oh, you’re one to talk,” the Doctor countered and Gemma feigned a scandalized gasp at his referral to her real age of forty-three.

It didn’t escape her notice how immediately easy it was to interact with the Doctor. She had thought she would be too nervous to even speak, when she finally met him, but now she was actually teasing him.

She thought it might have something to do with her regeneration. Her old self was much more shy and introverted. Maybe it was because of a childhood being bullied by other kids, who told she was crazy for believing in aliens, or maybe it was just a personality trait.

“Hang on, who’s Ian and Barbara?” Donna questioned from beside the Doctor.

“Gemma’s parents, my first companions.”

“He kidnapped them,” Gemma casually informed a shocked Donna, who apparently hadn’t heard about Gemma’s parents before.

“It’s not my fault they snuck on to the TARDIS.”

“And yet you decided to take them to see some murderous cavemen?”

“The TARDIS was a bit more difficult to navigate back then. I had no idea where we would end up.”

“I see nothing has changed then,” Donna snorted, making the Doctor glare at her, and Gemma and Martha giggle.

“Time to get back to work, I think.” The Doctor pouted, annoyed that Gemma had only just met him, and her and Donna were already ganging up on him.

Colonel Mace walked into the room just as the Doctor finished talking and paused, when he saw Gemma standing beside Donna and the Doctor.

“Doctor Chesterton, I didn’t know you would be here,” the Colonel said with a slight frown as he looked between Gemma and the Doctor. He had read Gemma’s file and knew that at this point in her timeline she hadn’t met the Doctor yet. Until now.

“I’m filling in for Doctor Thomsen today, sir.”

“You’re a doctor too?” Donna questioned with her hands resting on her hips as she looked down at Gemma with annoyance. “How come you haven’t told me any of this before?”

“In astrophysics, yes. UNIT sorta pressured me into it. And I’m telling you now. Considering I’ve known you for no more than a few minutes you’ve been given a lot of information about me, while I know nothing about you but your name.”

Behind her Martha cleared her throat and Gemma glanced at her over her shoulder. Her friend was shaking her head lightly and Gemma turned her head to see a stunned expression on Donna’s face.

“Sorry, was I being rude?”

“A bit, but you get used to it hanging around this guy.” Donna shrugged and pointed her thumb towards the Doctor, who had been watching the exchange with quiet interest. “And it’s Donna Noble from Chiswick. I’m just a temp.”

“Donna Noble? That’s a brilliant name. And there’s no such thing as just a temp. Honestly, being a doctor isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be. I get to say a lot of mumbo-jumbo and then people nod as if they’ve understood even half of it. Sometimes I just make up words to see if anyone’ll notice.”

A smile appeared on Donna’s lips as Gemma rambled and the companion glanced at the Doctor, who was grinning at Gemma. Her words were followed by a long pause, where she seemed to realize they were all staring at her and Gemma blushed.

“Right, well, maybe I should get back to work,” Gemma said as she glanced towards the doorway that would lead her back to where she had come from and then at the Colonel as she awaited his order. She had plenty of questions she wanted to ask the Doctor, but knew they probably had to wait.

“Nope, you’re gonna stay here and help me,” the Doctor told her and didn’t wait for an answer as he spun around and grabbed the ATMOS unit they had found at the factory. None of them noticed that Donna had left the room.

“The thing is, Doctor, I work for UNIT and not you,” Gemma pointed out as she crossed her arms in front of her.

“I never said you work for me,” the Doctor said as he turned to look at her and it was obvious he didn’t like being compared to someone who was ordering her around.

“You can stay and help if you wish to do so,” the Colonel told her with a court nod and Gemma sent him a grateful smile.

“I will then. What can you tell us, Doctor?”

The Doctor was still staring at her as she turned her eyes on him and there was an undecipherable look in his eyes that made her uneasy.

“Right,” the Doctor said as he put back on his glasses and turned to the grey box in his hand to study it closer.

Curiously, Gemma stepped forward until she was standing beside him and didn’t notice the small glances the Doctor cast her way, while he examined the unit. She smiled to herself, when he sniffed it and followed him as he walked over to the model of a stripped down car, which stood on one of the two tables in the room.

“Ionising nano membrane carbon dioxide converter,” the Doctor spoke as if he was voicing his thoughts and lifted the model car to see where the unit would have been installed. “Which means that ATMOS works. Filters the CO2 at a molecular level.”

“I figured that out months ago,” Gemma informed him as she moved with him to the next table where an up-scaled model of a car exhaust stood.

She was taken aback by the smile he sent her before he became serious once again and placed the ATMOS unit on top of the exhaust. The Colonel had followed the Doctor and stood beside him, looking over his shoulder.

“But what’s its origin? It is alien?” the Colonel asked as he leaned in, getting too close for the Doctor’s comfort.

“No, decades ahead of its time,” the Doctor replied and glanced at the Colonel over his shoulder. “Look, do you mind, could you stand back a bit?”

The Colonel leaned back in surprise and then glanced at both Martha and Gemma, looking for an answer as to why the Doctor was being rude. Gemma shrugged in response and then leaned closer to the Doctor herself, finding he had no trouble with her proximity.

“Sorry, have I done something wrong?”

“You’re carrying a gun,” the Doctor practically yelled and inwardly cursed himself, when Gemma flinched. “I don’t like people with guns hanging around me, alright?”

“If you insist.” The Colonel nodded, clearly offended by the Doctor’s words, and Martha sent him an apologizing look as he left the room.

“That was a bit rude,” Gemma commented with a frown, leaning away from the Doctor, who lifted his head to look at her.

“A bit?” Martha exclaimed from the other end of the table, but was ignored by the other two. 

“I know you hate guns as well,” the Doctor argued and Gemma tried not to think about how he knew that about her. She had a feeling he knew a lot more than what she was comfortable with.

“That doesn’t mean I go around and scream at people who carry them.”

“Well…” the Doctor said, dragging out the word as he clearly disagreed with her.

“Doctor, he’s a good man!” Martha hissed, loud enough to catch their attention, and pointed in the direction the Colonel had disappeared.

“People with guns are usually the enemy in my books,” the Doctor replied as he picked up the ATMOS unit and sat on the edge of the table. “You seem quite at home.”

Gemma ignored their bickering as she instead watched the Doctor pull a silver metal tube from the inner pocket of his jacket and point it at the unit, creating a buzzing sound. She had read about it in a UNIT file: the sonic screwdriver.

“If anyone got me used to fighting it’s you.”

“Oh, right, so it's my fault.”

“Well, you got me the job! Besides, look at me. Am I carrying a gun?” Martha snapped at the Doctor, who stopped sonicing the unit to look at her.

His eyes glided over her black uniform once, realizing she didn’t have a gun, before briefly glancing at Gemma, who seemed more interested in his sonic screwdriver.

“Suppose not.” The Doctor gave in and did his best not to smile as he offered the screwdriver to Gemma without looking at her.

He was almost certain he heard her breath hitch as she took it from him and couldn’t help but glance at her out the corner of his eye as wonder lit up her face.  

“It's all right for you,” Martha said, claiming his attention and he tried to ignore the buzzing coming from beside him as Gemma fiddled with the sonic.

“You can just come and go, but some of us have got to stay behind. So I've got to work from the inside and by staying inside, maybe I stand a chance of making them better.”

“Yeah?” The Doctor smiled as Martha finished her passionate speech and was glad to see he hadn’t turned her into the soldier she seemingly had become. “That's more like Martha Jones.”

“I learned from the best.”

“Well...” the Doctor said, dragging out the word, but was interrupted when a light bulb suddenly exploded above them.

Martha and the Doctor’s eyes snapped towards Gemma, who was pointing the screwdriver at the ceiling with an apologetic grimace on her face; her lips pressed together and her eyes wide.

“Right, maybe a bit too early.” The Doctor winced as he reached forward and carefully took the screwdriver from Gemma’s hand, checking it for damages.

“Sorry.”

“Oi, you lot!” Donna interrupted as she walked back into the room with a ring binder in her hand. “All your storm troopers and your sonics, rubbish! Should've come with me.”

“Why, where have you been?” the Doctor questioned with a frown and it annoyed him that he hadn’t noticed her leaving. They were his responsibility, all his companions. Of course, they also all had a bad habit of wandering off without him.

“Personnel. That's where the weird stuff's happening, in the paperwork,” Donna explained and Gemma smiled at the women, who was ‘just a temp’ and now solving their case.

“Cos I spent years working as a temp, I can find my way round an office blindfold, and the first thing I noticed is an empty file.”

“What did you find? Or not find,” Gemma asked with a look at the blue binder Donna was holding in front of her.

She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Colonel Mace had re-entered the room and was now standing beside her.

“Sick days,” Donna said as she showed them the label on the back of the binder and then opened it. “There aren't any. Hundreds of people working here and no one's sick. Not one hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping trip, nothing. Not ever! They don't get ill.”

“That can't be right,” the Colonel said as he stepped forward and took the binder from Donna.

“You've been checking out the building, should've been checking out the workforce.”

“I can see why he likes you.” Martha smiled at the Doctor, who watched his companion with pride and Donna hummed in agreement.

“You are brilliant,” Gemma supplied and she was tempted to give Donna a high-five.

“Super temp,” Donna mused with a smile and winked at Gemma, who giggled at the funny grimace Donna made in the process.

“Doctor Jones, set up a medical post, start examining the workers. I'll get them sent through,” the Colonel ordered, breaking their small moment of triumph, and Martha turned serious once again.

“Come on, Donna. Give me a hand,” Martha told the other woman as she left the room and Donna quickly followed.

That left Gemma with the Doctor as the Colonel had walked out without giving her any orders, and she wasn’t sure what to do next.

“Come on,” the Doctor said as he took her hand and pulled her with him out of the room to catch up with Colonel Mace.

“So this ATMOS thing. Where did it come from?” the Doctor asked as they walked beside the Colonel in a fast pace that made it hard for Gemma’s short legs to follow.

The Doctor was holding the ATMOS unit in one hand, while his other, to Gemma’s puzzlement, was still wrapped around her hand.

“Luke Rattigan himself.”

“And 'himself' would be?” the Doctor questioned as he gave the ATMOS unit to Gemma and took off his glasses with his now free hand. She didn’t mention the fact that he could easily have let go of her hand instead.

Gemma felt slightly out of breath as they made it to the black container that was the makeshift UNIT base. She was in a good shape since UNIT required her to be, but the Doctor was at least six feet to her own five-three, so when he walked fast Gemma had to jog to keep up.

It only took one of the technicians a few seconds to find UNIT’s file on Luke Rattigan and put it up on one of the big screens on the wall for the Doctor to see. Something about the kid continued to give Gemma the creeps, but luckily she hadn’t come face to face with him in their investigation, yet.

“Child genius. Invented the Fountain Six search engine, when he was twelve years old. Millionaire overnight. Now runs the Rattigan Academy, a private school, educating students handpicked from all over the world,” the Colonel listed as their information about Luke appeared chronologically on the screen.

“A hothouse for geniuses, wouldn’t mind going there,” the Doctor said and sounded almost impressed about what he had learned about Luke.

The Colonel sent him a confused look, while Gemma frowned in distaste. An agent had a couple of weeks ago suggested that she went undercover at the Rattigan Academy to learn more about ATMOS and she had vehemently objected. Colonel Mace had luckily agreed with her.

“I get lonely,” was the Doctor’s reply to Colonel Mace’s questioning look and Gemma raised her eyebrows at him.

“Should I be offended?” Gemma asked with a tilt of her head and a joking smile.

“Gemma, love,” the Doctor spoke quietly as he turned to face her and her eyes widened at the endearment. “You are definitely a genius, but you’re not always there and then I’m stuck with Donna.”

“I like Donna.”

“Donna is amazing, but she doesn’t exactly understand quantum physics.”

Gemma didn’t have anything to say to that as she knew he was probably right, so she just nodded in understanding. Then the Doctor surprised her again by pressing a kiss to her forehead before he unceremoniously turned to look at the Colonel.

“So, where do I find the Rattigan Academy?”

“Follow me,” the Colonel said as he turned on his heel and walked towards the exit.

Once again Gemma was pulled with the Doctor as he followed the Colonel and she was happy to get outside, hoping that the fresh air would clear her head.

“I will find a car to take us,” Colonel Mace said as he led them back through the factory to where the UNIT jeeps were parked.

“You are not coming with us,” the Doctor told sternly as he fixed the Colonel with a glare and Gemma secretly rolled her eyes at him. He was taking this whole no-guns policy a little too far. “I want to talk to this Luke Rattigan, not point a gun at him.”

“It’s ten miles outside London. How are you going to get there?”

“Well, then get us a jeep!” the Doctor said as he gestured towards the vehicles that were parked around them.

Gemma recognised the soldier standing by one of the jeeps and waved at him. He sent her a smile in return, but looked away when he felt the Doctor’s eyes on him.   

“According to the records you travel by TARDIS,” Colonel Mace commented inquisitively, shifting the Doctor’s attention back to him and catching Gemma’s as well. She wondered if she would get to see the TARDIS before the Doctor left. 

“Yes, but if there is a danger of hostile aliens I think it’s best to keep a super-duper time machine away from the front lines,” the Doctor argued as they came to a stop by one of the jeeps and Gemma raised an eyebrow at his use of the words ‘super-duper’.

“I see. So you do have weapons, but choose to keep them hidden,” Colonel Mace retorted and Gemma could feel him how the usually level-headed man was at his tipping point. “Jenkins!”

“Sir!” the young soldier, Gemma’s friend, immediately responded.

“You will accompany the Doctor and take orders from him.”

“Yeah, I don’t do orders,” the Doctor objected as he glanced at the soldier and then at Gemma, who was smiling at the young man.

He felt a twitch of jealous in his stomach, but it was gone as soon as Gemma turned back to roll her eyes at him, not agreeing with his statement. This was at least the second time she had done so, even though she didn’t know he had noticed.

“Any sign of trouble get Jenkins to declare a Code Red. And good luck, sir,” Colonel Mace told the Doctor and nodded a goodbye to Gemma before saluting the Doctor.

“I said no salutes.”

“Now you're giving orders,” Colonel Mace muttered as he walked away and Gemma let out a snort as she failed not to laugh.

“Oh, you're getting a bit cheeky, you are,” the Doctor said as he watched the Colonel leave, amused with his comment.

“Or, just maybe, you’re a bit annoying.”

“You think I’m annoying?” The Doctor pouted as he looked down at her with big sad eyes that didn’t seem completely genuine.

“Maybe not. But you are patronizing, rude and I’ve no idea what this is all about,” Gemma listed casually and lifted their connected hands between them to show him what she was talking about.

“It’s our hands, I’m holding your hand,” the Doctor replied with a confused frown and Gemma had to force herself not to roll her eyes again.  

“I can see that, but why?”

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it again and stared at her instead. When she didn’t offer him a way out he opened his mouth again, but was saved by Donna, who called after him as she slowly approached.

“Doctor.”

“Oh, just in time! Come on! Come on, we're going to the country,” the Doctor exclaimed, letting go of Gemma’s hand to grab Donna’s instead and pulled her towards their jeep. “Fresh air and geniuses. What more could you ask?”

“I'm not coming with you,” Donna interrupted him and the Doctor came to an immediate stop as he turned around to look at her with a shocked expression. Sensing the seriousness of the situation Gemma stayed back to let them talk.

“I've been thinking. I'm sorry, I'm going home,” Donna continued quietly, feeling bad for leaving the Doctor even though he now had Gemma.

“Really?”

The Doctor’s voice was barely audible and he was obviously trying hard not to show how disappointed her decision made him.

“I've got to.”

“Well, if that's what you want. I mean it's a bit soon,” the Doctor said with a sad smile and Donna found it hard to look him in the eyes.

“I had so many places I had wanted to take you. The Fifteenth Broken Moon of the Medusa Cascade, the Lightning Skies of Cotter Palluni's World, Diamond Coral Reefs of Kataa Flo Ko.”

Donna realised halfway through what the Doctor thought she had meant by going home, but found it too funny to stop him.

“Thank you. Thank you, Donna Noble, it's been brilliant. You've, you've saved my life in so many ways and Gemma might not know you yet, but I know she’s gonna miss you,” the Doctor told her with a grateful smile, but paused when he noticed the look in Donna’s eyes and suddenly felt very stupid. “You're... You're just popping home for a visit, that's what you mean.”

“You Dumbo!” Donna whispered with a shake of her head, but she was also amused that she had managed to fool the Doctor.

“And then you're coming back,” the Doctor continued as he sheepishly scratched his sideburn.

“Know what you are? A great big outer-space dunce.”

“Yeah.”

“Ready when you are, sir,” Ross called from beside the jeep, having heard most of the conversation between the two, and waved Gemma over as well.

“What's more you can give me a lift,” Donna said as she ran around the Doctor and jumped into the jeep. “Come on!”

“Gemma?” the Doctor called after the redhead, who was approaching the jeep slowly. “You coming?”

“Er, I think we need a bigger jeep,” Gemma said as she looked inside the vehicle and saw that there was only one seat left beside Donna.

“It’s fine, we’ll manage. Donna’s not that far.” The Doctor waved it off as he climbed inside and then reached for Gemma, who wasn’t sure what to do with herself.

“Come on, Gem,” Donna practically ordered as she leaned over the Doctor and grabbed Gemma’s arm, pulling her inside.

The sudden tug made Gemma land clumsily in the Doctor’s lap and she almost bumped her head against Donna’s in an attempt to lean away from him.

“Everybody ready? Great, then step on it, soldier boy!” Donna exclaimed before Gemma had the chance to protest and she had to wrap her arms around the Doctor’s neck, so she wouldn’t smash into the dashboard.

“This is a bit ridiculous, you know?” Gemma complained as she shifted on the Doctor’s lap to find a more comfortable position, but froze when she felt his arm tighten around her waist, telling her to keep still.

“I could just sit in the back,” she suggested, looking over her shoulder at the empty cargo room in the back of the jeep.

“That wouldn’t be safe,” Ross told her and she glared at him, when she noticed the hint of a smirk on his lips. He was obviously enjoying her discomfort.

“And this is safe? We could also have found another vehicle. I mean, this can’t be comfortable for you,” Gemma said as she turned her head to look at the Doctor, whose face was no more than a few inches away. Their proximity made a deep blush creep up her neck and she quickly averted her eyes to look out of the window.

“I don’t think he’s complaining,” Donna muttered from beside her, talking more to Ross than them, but Gemma heard anyway and felt her face heat up even more.

“What?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” Donna mused and they all became silent as the car drove away from the factory and continued towards Chiswick. Gemma was just happy that it was only a fifteen minute drive, which was long enough to begin with.

Gemma remained quiet for the whole ride as she listened to Donna and the Doctor talk about the ATMOS and where they were going after having dropped off Donna. When their talk turned towards Martha and Donna mentioned her family, the Doctor suddenly became very quiet and a tense silence filled the car.

It was obviously a touchy subject for him and Donna didn’t press him for any answers, but Gemma felt herself grow restless as the silence stretched on. When she started wriggling the Doctor’s grip tightened on her again, but this time Gemma didn’t stop.

“Gemma, please sit still,” the Doctor told her quietly, when his self-control got stretched to its limits and Gemma turned her head to glare at him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you uncomfortable?” Gemma exclaimed angrily and felt how she was quickly losing her temper.

She had tried hard to remain calm while being dragged around by the Doctor, because all of it was also a bit exciting, but right now she was just about done with it.

“Here I am, sitting in the lap of a man I met thirty minutes ago, who seem to know all about me, and I’m being dragged around all sorts of places, running just to keep up with your matchstick legs. I’m short and I’m wearing sodding heels if you haven’t noticed, because I kinda had other plans before I was called in to work and UNIT doesn’t care that maybe I would like to change my clothes, so I don’t have to go to work in heels and a dress!”

Gemma was breathing heavily, when she finally finished ranting and she was certain that her face had turned beet red, but at the moment she didn’t really care. What frustrated her more was the fact that she was still stuck in the car on the Doctor’s lap and all he did was stare at her in stunned silence.

“What were you wearing heels and a dress for?” he finally asked and Gemma gaped as she definitely hadn’t expected that to be his response.

“I told you I had other plans, but that’s not the point! Did you hear anything of what I just said?”

“Oh, was it today you had that date with that guy, what was his name?” Ross realised slowly, feeling bad for Gemma and the fact that he had found the whole situation funny at first.

“James, but that hardly matters anymore. He practically hates me now.” Gemma sighed as she turned her head to look at Ross, frowning when she felt the Doctor tense underneath her.

“Had to cancel again? What is it, the third time?”

“Fourth. I get that he doesn’t want to see me anymore. We’ve only been on two dates and it probably won’t last anyway. Most guys run when I tell them I’m a forty-three year old in a twenty-five year old’s body. They think I’m bonkers. Or they get super frustrated, when I won’t tell them about my job. I hate dating.”

“You and me could always give it a go,” Ross joked, not noticing the look Donna was sending the Doctor, or that Gemma was once again wriggling uncomfortably as the Doctor’s grip on her had tightened.

“Yeah, although I don’t think Clark will be too happy,” Gemma replied with a laugh before turning her attention back to the Doctor. “Will you please let go of me before I suffocate?”

“Stop here,” Donna suddenly said and it was a good thing that the Doctor hadn’t listened as Gemma was thrown forward at the abrupt stop. “You two, move.”

Gemma quickly followed Donna’s instructions as she opened the door and jumped out of the Doctor’s arms and the car. The Doctor was right behind her and Gemma quickly stepped away, creating some space between them.

As soon as Donna was out of the car, Gemma crawled back in to sit beside Ross and they watched in silence as Donna hugged the Doctor, whispering something in his ear.

“Are you okay?” Ross asked her quietly, grabbing the chance to talk to her without the Doctor being able to hear.

“I think so. Sorry about all the yelling, I just kinda lost it.”

“S’okay. You should probably talk to him, though. I mean, it must be tough for him as well, knowing you and all, while you’ve only just met him. Imagine meeting someone you care about and they have no idea who you are. I’d go crazy, I think.”

“Yeah, guess I didn’t really think about that.” Gemma sighed as she kept her eyes on Donna, who was waving at her as the Doctor walked back to the car.

“Rattigan Academy,” Ross told the SAT-NAV as the Doctor jumped into the car and they drove off.

The following silence quickly started grating on Gemma’s nerves and she managed to look at the Doctor out the corner of her eye to find him staring thoughtfully out of the window.

“I’m sorry,” Gemma said after a few minutes of driving, breaking the silence in the car, and she felt the Doctor’s gaze on her even though she was looking straight ahead.

“What for?” he asked with genuine confusion in his voice.

“For snapping at you,” Gemma told as she looked at him in surprise and was relieved to find there was no sign of anger on his face. “Sometimes I just lose my temper.”

“I know.” The Doctor smiled and Gemma couldn’t find it in herself to be annoyed by his extensive knowledge about her.

“It’s not very attractive. I get all flushed and red. Comes with the hair, regrettably.”

“Oh no, I love your hair. It’s beautiful,” the Doctor objected as he carefully grabbed a lock of her hair and twisted it between his fingers. “Wish I was a ginger.”

“You’re kidding me.” Gemma deadpanned and then smiled at the way he was playing with her hair, finding it strangely calming.

“I never joke about being a ginger. I mean, I’m on my tenth regeneration. Thought it would have happened by now, but it really is a lottery. You should see the ears on the last one.”

“I have. A civilian named Clive actually found quite a few pictures of you. One from the Kennedy assassination and then there was one of you with a family in nineteen-twelve, whom for some mysterious reason cancelled their tickets to get aboard the Titanic at the very last minute.”

“It was a nice family. I went anyway. Hit bit of a snag, ended up clinging to an iceberg. I nearly lost a toe,” the Doctor told and shivered as if he could still remember the cold, making Gemma giggle.

“How did you get away? Waited for a gust of wind and let those big ears carry you away?”

“Funny, very funny,” the Doctor replied dryly, but didn’t seem offended by her joke.

“Actually, I have a question for you. About my regeneration, do you know why it happened?” Gemma asked hesitantly, when she finished laughing, and didn’t like the apologetic look in his eyes.

“I don’t, Gemma. I’m sorry, I really am. But I’ll tell you as soon as I find out, I promise.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I’m just… it’s driving me a bit crazy sometimes. I can’t believe you’ve been through it nine times. That one time was more than enough scary.”

“I wish I could have been there to help you,” the Doctor said, his voice sad and his eyebrows gathered in a frown.

Gemma sent him a smile as she reached for his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. She could tell that he actually felt guilty for not having been there, but there was nothing anyone could do about it now.

Doing so could cause a lot of trouble as that meant she would never start working for UNIT and possibly never even meet the Doctor. There was even a chance that the car, which had hit her, would have hit and killed someone else instead, and maybe someone far more important than Gemma. 

“So Jenkins,” the Doctor addressed the soldier, clearing his throat to get rid of the lump that had formed, and leaned forward to look at him, “I never got your first name.”

“It’s Ross, sir.”

“No, no ‘sir’. Doctor is fine,” the Doctor quickly told him with a shake of his head and Ross nodded in understanding. “You’ve worked at UNIT for long?”

“Just a few months. Met Gemma on my first day, when she yelled at my captain for touching one of her machines. Never seen such a big man become so small in just a few seconds.”

Ross laughed heartily and Gemma blushed at the memory. She had been in a bad mood and maybe overreacted a tiny bit, but the captain had almost ruined one of her experiments.

“Sounds like my Gemma.” The Doctor grinned and neither Ross nor Gemma missed his use of the possessive pronoun, sharing a brief look of surprise.

“I’ve heard that you used to work for UNIT,” Ross said in an attempt to divert Gemma’s attention, which seemed to work as she turned to look at the Doctor with interest. Of course, she already knew that about him, but she was curious to hear him talk about it himself.

“Back in the seventies, or maybe it was the eighties. I get them mixed up. And technically, I still do. Suppose I forgot to give them my resignation.”

“You worked with the Brigadier, right? How was he?”

“A good man. One of the best I’ve ever known.”

“He tried to recruit me for UNIT back in the nineties. He still invites me to have tea with him every once in a while,” Gemma told and remembered with a smile how the Brigadier had once spent an hour telling her the story of how he first met the Doctor, almost forgetting the tea part of the invitation. 

“ _Turn left,_ ” the SAT-NAV suddenly instructed and Ross turned down a smaller road as a sign told them the Rattigan Academy was less than a kilometre ahead.

“Tell me, what do you know about the Academy?” the Doctor asked as he read the sign and looked at Ross and Gemma for an answer.

“UNIT's been watching Rattigan Academy for ages. It's all a bit Hitler Youth. Exercise at dawn and classes and special diets,” Ross told him with a tone of disdain in his voice; a feeling Gemma shared.

“ _Turn left,_ ” the SAT-NAV instructed and the road underneath became bumpy as the asphalt was replaced by gravel.

“Ross, one question. If UNIT think that ATMOS is dodgy...” the Doctor’s voice trailed off as he sent the installed ATMOS navigator a suspicious look.

“How come we've got it in the jeeps?” Ross finished his question and laughed dryly. “Yeah, tell me about it. They're fitted as standard on all government vehicles. We can't get rid of them until we prove something's wrong.”

“ _Turn right._ ”

“Drives me around the bend,” Ross complained as they drove around a bend and Gemma groaned at his bad humour.

“Oh, nice one!” the Doctor complimented with a smile that only widened, when he noticed Gemma roll her eyes at them.

“Timed that perfectly.”

“Yeah! Yeah, you did!”

“ _This is you final destination._ ”

“Am I the only who find that a tiny bit ominous?” Gemma asked with one last look at the SAT-NAV before she followed the Doctor out of the car.

“Come on. Let’s go meet this child genius,” the Doctor urged and offered his hand to her, which she took after a brief moment of hesitation. It still felt strange, but at least he was letting her decide now.

A large mansion rose in front of them as they walked up the driveway and towards the main entrance. A group of teenagers ran past them in a straight line; all dressed in orange sweats that reminded Gemma of a prison uniform.

In the middle of it all stood a young boy with his back to them and pretended to look over a wide field as if he was in the middle of something important and Gemma shared a quick, exasperated look with Ross.

“Is it PE? I wouldn't mind a kick around. I've got my chaps on,” the Doctor called out excitedly, making the teenager turn around and walk towards him.

“I suppose you're the Doctor?” Luke replied in a bored tone and then looked at Gemma, who frowned at the way Luke’s gaze rested on her.

“Hello!” the Doctor greeted happily, but squeezed Gemma’s hand, when he felt her unease.

“Your commanding officer phoned ahead.”

“Ah, but I haven't got a commanding officer. Have you?” the Doctor asked, the excitement draining from his voice as he looked closely at Luke, who simply glared at him. The Doctor then gestured towards Ross, who sent the boy a cold smile. “Oh, this is Ross. Say hello, Ross.”

“Afternoon, sir.”

“And you are?” Luke inquired as he looked Gemma and there was a blank expression on her face as she replied.

“Juliet.”

“Let's have a look then. I can smell genius! In a good way,” the Doctor exclaimed as he rushed off towards the front door, pulling Gemma with him and away from Luke.

The first room they stepped into was filled with a dozen experiments on different tables with students in oranges sweats fiddling around with them. Once again Gemma was reminded of a prison camp, or in this case a work camp, but it didn’t seem to faze the Doctor, who was busy admiring everything around him.

“Oh, now! That's clever, look!” the Doctor cooed as walked over to a piece of thin paper and put on his glasses to get a closer look. “Single molecule fabric, how thin is that?! You could pack a tent in a thimble.”

“Oh! Gravity simulators!”

Gemma let go of the Doctor’s hand as he ran around like a kid in a candy store and took a step towards Ross, when Luke came to stand beside her.

“Terraforming, biospheres, nano-tech steel constructs! Ha ha! This is brilliant!” The Doctor laughed, but then seemed to calm down as he came to a stop in front of Luke. “Do you know, with equipment like this you could... oh, I don't know, move to another planet or something?”

“If only that was possible,” Luke replied, clearly irritated, and Gemma noticed his hands curl into fists.

“If only that _were_ possible,” The Doctor corrected as he took off his glasses, angering Luke even further. “Conditional clause.”

“I think you better come with me.”

Luke had walked out of the room before they even had a chance to follow him.

Something about this whole place rubbed Gemma the wrong way. All these young and bright boys and girls gathered in one place and they all took orders from a megalomaniac kid with anger issues.

“You're smarter than the usual UNIT grunts, I'll give you that,” Luke told the Doctor as soon as they caught up with him inside a large room, which was probably Luke’s private quarters given the indoor swimming pool Gemma could see through a wide doorway. 

“He called you a grunt!” the Doctor told Ross, offended on his behalf, but the soldier’s expression remained blank. “Don't call Ross a grunt, he's nice! We like Ross! Look at this place...”

The Doctor’s voice trailed off as looked up at the ceiling and then at everything around him as he started wandering around the room.

“What exactly do you want?” Luke snapped frustratingly and was evidently finding it harder to control his anger as he gestured wildly with his arms.

“I was just thinking, what a responsible eighteen year old. Inventing zero carbon cars? Saving the world,” the Doctor replied as he mentally noted down every detail in the room.

Like the big square box with a whole in the middle standing in the corner of the room. Gemma had seen it too and was staring at it curiously, trying to figure out what it was. If anything, it looked alien.

“Takes a man with vision,” Luke said with his arms stretched out on each side of him, showing off everything his success had given him.

“Mmh, blinking vision. Cos ATMOS means more people driving, more cars, more petrol. End result, the oil's gonna run out faster than ever. The ATMOS system could make things worse.”

“Yeah, see, that's a tautology,” Luke pointed out as he practically ran towards the Doctor, his words spilling from his mouth too fast, making him stumble over them. “You can't say 'ATMOS system' since it stands for 'atmospheric emissions system'. So, so, so you're saying 'atmospheric emissions system system', do you see, Mister Conditional Clause?”

“It's been a long time since anyone said no to you, isn't it?” the Doctor asked in a dark tone and Gemma could see the pity in his eyes.

“I'm still right, though.”

“Not easy, is it? Being clever,” the Doctor spoke solemnly and glanced briefly at Gemma before he stepped forward, towering over Luke. “You look at the world and you connect things, random things. And think, 'why can't anyone else see it?' The rest of the world is so slow.”

“Yeah.”

“And you're all on your own.”

“I know.”

“But not with this!” the Doctor exclaimed as he pulled out the ATMOS device he had studied at the factory from the inside of his jacket, surprising Gemma who hadn’t noticed he had it with him. How big were his pockets?

“Cos there's no way you invented this thing single handed. I mean, it might be Earth technology, but that's like finding a mobile phone in the Middle Ages.”

Ross barely caught the device, when the Doctor tossed it across the room to him and then walked towards the big square box in the corner of the room.

“No, no, I'll tell you what it's like! It's like finding this in the middle of someone’s front room,” he continued, pointing at the box behind him as he turned to look at Luke. “Albeit it's a very big front room.”

“And what is it?” Ross questioned as he placed the device on the floor and Gemma waited curiously for an answer as well as she hadn’t been able to figure it out. Not without a closer look, anyway.

“Yeah, just looks like a thing, doesn't it? People don't question things, they just say 'oh, it's a thing'.”

“Leave it alone!” Luke yelled at the Doctor as he stepped inside the box, but the Time Lord wasn’t listening.

“Me, I make these connections. And this, to me, looks like a teleport pod.”

After pressing a few buttons on the console inside the box the Doctor disappeared in a white light and Gemma stepped forward in alarm.

“Where did he go?” she asked Luke, who was just staring at the teleport pod in shock.

Gemma was shocked by the Doctor’s behaviour as well since he would have no idea where the teleport would take him, but she supposed this was just a faster way of finding out and hopefully he had some idea of what he was doing.  

“Where did the teleport take him?” Gemma asked again, this time more forcefully, and grabbed Luke’s arm, when he remained silent.

The next moment the white light appeared again and the Doctor came running out of the teleport in high speed.

“Gemma, Ross, get out!” the Doctor yelled as he ran towards Luke, and Ross quickly joined Gemma with his gun raised at the pod. “Luke, you've got to come with me!”

They didn’t have time to leave the room before another flash of white light brought someone through and the Doctor quickly pointed his screwdriver at the teleport, making it spark as he disabled it.

“Sontaran!” the Doctor yelled before the person, or alien, had time to do anything with the staff he had raised against them. “That’s your name, isn't it? You're a Sontaran. How did I know that, ay? Fascinating isn't it? Isn't that worth keeping me alive?”

“I order you to surrender in the name of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce,” Ross yelled at the Sontaran, who had lowered his staff after realising the Doctor might have valuable information about them.

“Well, that's not going to work.” The Doctor frowned at Ross’ gun before turning his gaze back to the Sontaran, explaining to the soldier why a bullet wouldn’t work against them. “Cordolaine signal, am I right? Copper excitation stopping the bullets.”

“How do you know so much?” a throaty voice asked from beneath the helmet and Gemma tried to imagine what the face behind it might look like. The alien wasn’t very tall, about Gemma’s height, and was wearing armour that covered their whole body.

“Well...” The Doctor dragged out the word as he stepped back to casually lean against Luke’s desk.

“Who is he?” the Sontaran questioned Luke angrily as he pointed towards the Doctor with his staff.

“He didn't give his name.”

“But this isn't typical Sontaran behaviour, is it? Hiding! Using teenagers, stopping bullets? A Sontaran should face bullets with dignity. Shame on you!” the Doctor scolded the other alien provokingly and Gemma sent him an incredulous look. She didn’t know if antagonizing the enemy was the best idea.

“You dishonour me, sir!”

“Yeah, then show yourself!”

“I will look into my enemy's eyes.”

Ross and Gemma watched with wide eyes as the Sontaran lifted their helmet of their head to face the Doctor properly and Ross lowered his gun in shock. Gemma had seen plenty of aliens before, but never a Sontaran.

“Oh, my god.”

“What in the world…” Gemma breathed as she without thinking took a step towards the alien in astonishment to get a closer look. The Sontaran’s skin was a murky, brown colour and the head was shaped like a rounded cone. It was ugly to say the least.

“Not of this world, I’m afraid, my dear,” the Doctor muttered as he walked past to stand protectively in front her. She was getting a little too to Luke and the Sontaran for his comfort.

“And your name?” the Doctor asked the Sontaran, who was glaring at the Doctor with murder in its eyes.

“General Staal of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet. Staal the Undefeated!”

“Well, that's not a very good nickname,” the Doctor commented with a look at Gemma over his shoulder and she couldn’t help but smile despite the serious situation. “What if you do get defeated? Staal the Not-Quite-So-Undefeated-Anymore-But-Never-Mind?”

“He's like a potato, a baked potato, a talking baked potato,” Ross spoke from behind them and the Doctor took a turn around himself to point at the soldier.

“Now, Ross, don't be rude. You look like a pink weasel to him,” the Doctor admonished as something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye and he walked over to pick it up.

Gemma watched with a frown as he started bouncing a small ball with a racket, not quite following what he was going to do with it.

“The Sontarans are the finest soldiers in the galaxy, dedicated to a life of warfare. A clone race, grown in batches of millions with only one weakness-” the Doctor explained to Ross as he leaned on the soldier’s shoulder, but was interrupted by General Staal.

“Sontarans have no weakness!”

“No, it's a good weakness!” the Doctor reassured the Sontaran.

“Aren't you meant to be clever? Only an idiot would provoke him,” Luke questioned disbelievingly and Gemma half agreed with him.

“No, but the Sontarans are fed by a probic vent in the back of their neck, that's their weak spot. Which means, they always have to face their enemies in battle. Isn't that brilliant? They can never turn their backs!” the Doctor continued explaining to Ross and Gemma as if Luke hadn’t even spoken and sounded inappropriately cheerful given the situation.

“We stare into the face of death!”

“Yeah? Well, stare at this!” the Doctor called out and threw the ball into the air, hitting it with the racket. The ball bounced inside the teleport before hitting the Sontaran’s neck, making the alien fall to the ground with a shout.

“You’re staying here!” Luke yelled at Gemma as he grabbed her wrist tightly, when he noticed Ross and the Doctor run towards the exit.

Luke’s voice made the Doctor freeze and he cursed himself for letting Gemma get so close to the boy. He didn’t have much time to work out a plan to save Gemma though, as he was interrupted by a loud cry of pain and he looked down to see that Gemma’s heel was buried in Luke’s left foot.

“Come on, Doctor. Time to go!“ Gemma yelled and grabbed the Doctor’s hand as she ran past him and out of the room. The Doctor grinned widely at her as they ran through corridors to get to the outside and back to the jeep.

Ross was already in the car as they jumped inside and stepped on the speeder just as the Doctor slammed the car door shut. Gemma looked out through the rear window to see if anyone was following them, but no one was there. On the other hand, they did seem to have remote control of the ATMOS system installed in their jeep.

“I can’t believe I would actually reach a point where I was thankful for wearing heels today,” Gemma groaned as she leaned back in her seat and looked at the Doctor, who was smiling back at her. “I hope he limps for at least a week.”

“I’m just happy you’re okay,” the Doctor told her as he grabbed the back of her head and briefly pressed his lips against her forehead, making Gemma blush.

The Doctor moved on quickly as if it was no big deal and grabbed the communicator from the dashboard, hoping to get in contact with UNIT to provide them with back-up. Ross quickly told him the codenames to use as the Doctor lifted the communicator to his mouth.

“Greyhound Forty to Trap One, can you hear me? Over.”

There was no answer, only a scratching sound, and Ross and Gemma shared a look of panic.

“Greyhound Forty to Trap One, repeat, can you hear me? Over.”

“Why's it not working?”

“Must be the Sontarans. If they can trace that, then they can isolate the ATMOS.”

“ _Turn left,_ ” the SAT-NAV instructed and an idea popped into the Doctor’s head.

“Try going right!”

“It said left,” Ross countered to the Doctor’s annoyance, and Gemma grabbed the wheel, making a sharp turn to the right only to have the car swerve a bit.

“I've got no control, it's driving itself! It won't stop!” Ross yelled as he lifted his hands from the wheel and the car kept driving straight forward.

Quickly, the Doctor pulled his screwdriver from his pocket and started sonicing the ATMOS, but nothing happened. On the other side of Gemma, Ross pulled at the door handle, but had the same result as the Doctor.

“The doors are locked!”

“Argh, it's deadlocked, I can't stop it!”

“ _Turn left._ ”

Gemma was thrown into Ross as the car suddenly turned left down a small road and she had a bad feeling about where they were going to end up.

“Doctor, please tell me you got a plan!” Gemma yelled and clung to the dashboard in front of her as the road got bumpy underneath them and she was tossed around.

“The SAT-NAV's just a box, wired through the whole car!” the Doctor thought out loud as he tried to think of a way to save them.

“We're heading for the river!” Ross exclaimed frightened, confirming Gemma’s fears, and the car swerved off the road as it drove them towards the water.

“ATMOS, you're programmed to contradict my orders?” the Doctor asked the SAT-NAV as something occurred to him and he felt a moment of relief, when it confirmed his suspicions.

“Anything I say, you'd ignore it?”

“ _Confirmed._ ”

“Then drive into the river! I order you to drive into the river! Do it! Drive into the river!”

“Doctor!” Gemma cried out as the jeep didn’t show any signs of contradicting his orders and continued in high speed towards the edge of the river. Clutching the Doctor’s arm, Gemma closed her eyes and waited for the impact with the water.

When the car stopped abruptly Gemma didn’t hesitate to jump out after the Doctor, who grabbed her hand as they ran away from the car. Behind them they could hear the SAT-NAV struggle with the orders it had been given as it kept giving them instructions to either turn right or left.

“Get down!” the Doctor yelled, when the car seemed ready to blow and Gemma landed hard on the ground, feeling the Doctor’s arm reach over her head as a cover.

A couple of seconds later they heard two small pops as if a fuse had blown and they lifted their heads to see a small pillar of smoke escape the car.

“Oh, was that it?” the Doctor asked disappointed and Gemma punched his arm in response.

“You’re sad that we didn’t get blown up?!”

“No, no, no. But you know… just a little boom would have been nice.” 

“I hate you,” Gemma muttered as she got to her feet and dusted off her dress and white lab coat. She had a couple of scratches on her legs from landing on the gravel, but was otherwise unscathed.

“No, you don’t,” the Doctor replied with a smile and reached over to remove a straw of grass from her hair.

“Right, so now what? The car’s not working and we can’t call UNIT, because the radio’s not working and I landed on top of my phone so now it’s broken.” Gemma sighed as she fished her work phone out of her pocket: the screen cracked and non-responding.

“Donna lives close by,” the Doctor said and looked in the direction of her house, even though Gemma had no idea whether it was the right way. “Only a couple of kilometres that way.”

“I hate to be a buzzkill, but I can’t walk two kilometres in these,” Gemma said as she pointed down at her shoes and stepped out of one of them to show the painful red marks the heels had made. The shoes were already half a size too small and running around in them only made it worse.

“I’ll carry you,” the Doctor replied unconcernedly and then turned his back to her, gesturing for her to jump on it.

“You’re gonna give me a piggyback ride all the way to Donna’s house?”

“Should be easy enough. How much do you weigh? A hundred and twenty, hundred and thirty?”

“Doctor, please don’t try to guess my weight.”

“Well, then. Hop on!”

She took a deep breath before she stepped out of her shoes and grabbed the Doctor’s shoulders to jump on his back. He easily caught her legs as she wrapped them around his waist and Gemma was immediately aware of how his hands grabbed the back of her thighs.

“And I didn’t think this day could get weirder,” she muttered to herself as she wrapped her arms around the Doctor’s neck and glared at Ross, who was watching her with a badly hidden smile.

Gemma shook her head when he moved to pick up her shoes, telling him to leave them. They deserved to get left behind after the pain they had caused her.  

“Allons-y!” the Doctor exclaimed, when he was certain Gemma wouldn’t fall off, and left the riverside in long strides.

Gemma was surprised by how strong the Doctor was as he even after a kilometre didn’t seem to struggle with her weight on his back. She had tried to tell him she could walk herself as soon as they stepped off the gravel road, but the Doctor just continued on as if he hadn’t heard her.

She did notice, though, that he was breathing a little heavily, when he put her down in front of Donna’s front door and rang the doorbell.

“You would not believe the day we’re having,” the Doctor told a surprised Donna, when she opened the door.

“Donna, please tell me you have some shoes I can borrow,” Gemma pleaded as she wriggled her toes, her bare feet cold after the long walk.

A few minutes later they were standing outside by Donna’s car as the Doctor finished telling his companion about what they had discovered at the Academy.

Gemma had borrowed a pair of black ballerinas. They were not optimal, but far more sensible than her heels, and she felt warmth slowly return to her toes. She just hoped she wouldn’t catch a cold.

“I'll requisition us a vehicle,” Ross told them as the Doctor was busy looking under the hood of the car. Gemma stood beside Donna, who was trying to call Martha on her phone.

“Anything without ATMOS. Don't point your gun at people!” the Doctor yelled after Ross as he disappeared down the street, but Gemma’s attention was caught by the older man running out of Donna’s house, yelling.

“Is it him? Is it him? Is it the Doctor?”

The older man came to a stop as he made it around the car and a look of recognition was on his face as he pointed at the Doctor.

“It's you!”

“Who?” the Doctor questioned before looking up from the car to see a familiar man staring at him. “Oh! It's you!”

“What, have you met before?” Donna exclaimed as she lowered the phone from her ear and stared at her grandfather in disbelieve.

“Yeah, Christmas Eve. Him and his lady friend, they disappeared right in front of me!” Wilfred told his granddaughter, gesturing excitedly with his arms.

“And you never said?!”

“Well, you never said!” Wilfred countered before introducing himself to the Doctor. “Wilf, sir. Wilfred Mott. You must be one of them aliens?”

“Well, yeah, but don't shout it out.” The Doctor grinned and took the hand Wilfred was pointing at him, shaking it in greeting. “Nice to meet you properly, Wilf.”

“Oh, an alien hand!”

“Hello, I’m Gemma and not an alien,” Gemma told the older man as he stared at his own hand in wonder.

“Nice to meet you, Miss. You travel with the Doctor as well?”

 “Oh, no. I work for UNIT.”

“What, with all the aliens?”

“Yep, that’s the one.” Gemma smiled at the man, who looked at her with wide eyes. Leaving him to get over the shock of meeting an actual alien, she stepped over to the Doctor, who was back to looking at the car.

“Donna, anything?” the Doctor asked as he scratched his right sideburn in thought and looked at the companion.

“She's not answering,” Donna told as she held her phone to her ear, but all she heard was the beeping tone telling her that Martha wasn’t picking up. “What is it, Sontorans?”

“Sontarans,” the Doctor corrected as his head turned to look at everything around him. He couldn’t figure out what the bigger picture was and it frustrated him. “But there's got to be more to it, they can't be just remote controlling cars. That's not enough.”

“Any ideas?” he asked as he looked down at Gemma, who replied with a disappointed shake of her head.

“Hold on,” Donna interrupted as Martha finally answered her call and the Doctor quickly reached for the phone. “Martha! Hold on, he's here.”

“Martha, tell Colonel Mace it's the Sontarans. They're in the file, Code Red, Sontarans,” the Doctor told quickly, emphasizing the word ‘Sontarans’ to make sure she understood the gravity of the situation. “But if they're inside the factory tell them not to start shooting. UNIT will get massacred. I'll get back as soon as I can, you got that?”

“ _Code Red, Sontaran. Gotcha,_ ” Martha replied calmly, hanging up immediately after. The Doctor quickly tossed Donna’s phone back to her and pulled out his sonic, pointing at the engine of the car.

“But you tried sonicing it before, you didn't find anything,” Donna said as they watched the Doctor work, having put back on his glasses as well.

“Yeah, but now I know it's Sontaran, I know what I'm looking for.”

“The thing is, Doctor, is that Donna is my only grandchild. You gotta promise me you're gonna take care of her,” Wilfred told as he watched the Doctor work.

Gemma suddenly realised how difficult it had to be to know someone you loved was out there, maybe lightyears away, and if something happened to them you might never find out what. She wondered what her parents would think about her meeting the Doctor and the fact that he knew her so well. 

“She takes care of me!” the Doctor replied without pausing his work and Wilfred chuckled lightly.

“Oh, yeah, that's my Donna. She was always bossing us around when she was tiny. The Little General we used to call her.”

“Yeah, don't start.” Donna sighed exasperatedly, but with a fond smile directed at her grandfather, and Gemma giggled as the other redhead rolled her eyes, when Wilfred didn’t listen.

“And some of the boys she used to turn up with, a different one every week! Yeah, who was that one with the nail varnish?”

“Matthew Richards. He lives in Kilbourn now. With a man.”

Gemma didn’t have time to react to that bit of information as spikes suddenly shot up from the ATMOS unit, making the Doctor lean away. 

“Woah! It's a temporal pocket! I knew there was something else in there. It's hidden just a second out of sync with real time,” the Doctor told the others as carefully studied it and Gemma couldn’t help lean in as well.

She had read theorems about things like this, but had never seen or experienced it in practise. Apparently it just took some alien technology.

“But what's it hiding?” Donna asked, but didn’t get an answer as her mother came walking towards them, stopping between Donna and Wilfred to look at the Doctor.

“I don't know, men and their cars! Sometimes I think if I was a car... Oh, it's you! Doctor, what was it?”

“Yeah, that's me,” the Doctor replied offhandedly, sparing only a quick glance at Donna’s mother, and Gemma had a feeling he wasn’t a big fan.

“What, have you met him as well?” Wilfred asked in surprise, pointing at the Doctor, who was sonicing the unit again.

“Dad! It's the man from the wedding! When you were laid up with Spanish flu! I'm warning you, last time that man turned up it was a disaster!” Donna’s mother ranted to her father as she glared at the Doctor with disdain.

Gemma had no idea what the woman was talking about, but opened her mouth to defend the Doctor, when a white smoke suddenly rose from the ATMOS unit.

“Get back!” the Doctor yelled as he pushed Donna out of the way and pulled Gemma towards him. Pushing the two women behind him, he pointed his screwdriver at the car and the unit sparked once as the smoke disappeared.

“That'll stop it!”

“I told you! He's blown up the car! Who is he anyway?! What sort of doctor blows up cars?” Donna’s mother shouted as the Doctor and Gemma started fanning away the leftover smoke, being careful not to inhale too much of it.

“Oh, not now, mum!”

“Oh, should I make an appointment?” the mother bit back before stalking back to her house, to Gemma’s relief.

“That wasn't just exhaust fumes. Some sort of gas. Artificial gas,” the Doctor said quietly and wrinkled his nose as if he had smelled something bad. Gemma could feel the smoke sting going down her lungs and lifted the sleeve of her coat to cover her mouth and nose.

“I think it might be poisonous,” she told the Doctor, her voice strained as she tried to hold back a cough, and he quickly pushed her away from the car with a worried look in his eyes.

“And it's aliens, is it? Aliens?” Wilfred asked loudly, but his question was ignored as the Doctor’s eyes darted around to the nearby cars, noticing the ATMOS sticker on every rear window.

“But if, if it's poisonous... then we've got poisonous gas in every car on Earth,” Donna realised in a scared voice and didn’t notice her grandfather climb into the car. 

“It's not safe! I'm gonna get it off the street!” the old man yelled as he opened the car door and caught Gemma’s attention.

“Wilfred, no!” she tried stopping him as she ran to the driver’s door, reaching it just as the door slammed and the door locked automatically.

“Hold on!” Donna called to her granddad as she came to help Gemma open the door and desperately knocked on the car window, when the car suddenly started. “Turn it off! Granddad, get out of there!”

“I can't! It's not locked! It's them aliens again!” Wilfred yelled back as he lifted his hands to show them the car key still in his hand.

Donna pulled frantically at the door handle, while Gemma ran to the other side of the car. She couldn’t open that door either and felt herself panic as the white smoke around them thickened, making it harder to breathe.

“They've activated it!” the Doctor shouted as he unsuccessfully tried to sonic the engine and Gemma looked down the street to see gas fill the air like an impenetrable fog.

“The gas! There's gas inside the car! He's gonna choke! Doctor!” Donna cried out and Gemma turned to look inside the car, horrified to see Wilfred cough violently.

The Doctor quickly ran to Donna’s side and pulled at the door handle while he soniced the door, but it was still stuck and around them several car alarms went off.

“It won't open!” he yelled in frustration and ran back to the look at the engine, pausing briefly when he noticed the commotion around him. “It's the whole world...”

“Doctor, what do we do?” Gemma coughed as she joined him by the engine, wanting to do something to help. He didn’t reply as he ripped out a bundle of cables and then ran back to the door to get out Wilfred, who was about to pass out.

The door still wouldn’t open and not knowing what to do, the Doctor ran to the middle of the street as Gemma and Donna frantically called for him. Gemma looked around in an attempt to find something that could smash the window and started feeling dizzy as more gas filled her lungs.

Placing her hands on the car to stay on her feet, she watched the Doctor run to the back of the car and disappear underneath it. Gemma had to take a step back, when someone closed the bonnet of the car and Donna’s mother was suddenly beside her, lifting an axe to smash the front window.

“Well, don’t just stand there! Get him out!” the woman yelled at her daughter, and Gemma pried off her coat, wrapping it around her hand to remove the glass shards around Wilfred.

With the Doctor’s help they quickly got the man out of the car, and Donna and her mother supported him as they walked back to their house.

“Use your coat to cover your nose and mouth,” the Doctor told Gemma, when she coughed again and she quickly did as she was told. When Ross pulled up behind them, she didn’t hesitate to jump inside the car.

“Doctor! This is all I could find that hasn't got ATMOS,” Ross called out to the Doctor, who turned to find that Gemma was already inside the black cab.

Calling for Donna, he ran to the car and the companion followed despite the protests from her mother. The Doctor, who was sat across from Gemma, placed a hand on either side of her head as they drove off and looked her over to make sure that she was okay.

“You’ll be fine, Gemma. I promise you’ll be fine,” he told the scared woman, who was trying hard not to cough as she wanted to assure him of his own words. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Gemma had to look away and the Doctor’s hands dropped to his lap.  

“Is it always this insane with you?” Gemma asked quietly as the gas had dried out her throat and Donna snorted from beside the Doctor.

“Not always.”

“Yeah.”

Gemma looked between the two time travellers, who had spoken at the same time and was now staring at each other challengingly to try and make the other back down.

“Yeah,” the Doctor finally said, agreeing with Donna, and Gemma let a laugh that turned into a small coughing fit, making her hide her face in her hands.

“Can’t wait for the next time you come to visit then,” Gemma said when she managed to breathe properly again and she looked up to find Donna and the Doctor staring at her worriedly.

“Well, it doesn’t really work like that,” the Doctor told her hesitatingly as he shared a quick look with Donna, hating that this was how he had to tell her.

“What d’you mean?”

“Your ability to regenerate isn’t the only thing that’s special about you, Gemma. Somehow you’re tied to my timeline, my past and my future. The reason we meet out of order is not because I time travel, but because you do.”

“Me?“ Gemma questioned as she looked at the two persons in front of her as if they had grown an extra head. “In what?”

“You sorta… jump. Or fly away,” Donna tried explaining and grimaced as the words had sounded better in her head.

“I fly. To the future. And the past. In your timeline,” Gemma said slowly and pointed at the Doctor, who nodded even though he could see that she obviously didn’t believe them. “Is this a joke? Cos I’m not laughing.”

“It’s not, Gemma, trust me. It’s the time vortex. It pulls you from one point on my timeline to another.”

“How?” Gemma asked with a frown, finding the Doctor’s words hard to believe.

A smile spread on the Doctor’s face as he recognized the curious look in her bright eyes and was sad that he couldn’t give her a real answer.

“I’m not sure yet. I’ve tried analysing it in every way I can, but the time vortex can be hard to understand even for a Time Lord.”

“Are there any patterns?”

“Patterns?”

“Do I ‘jump’ in any specific pattern or is it random?” Gemma elaborated as the logical part of her brain tried put the pieces together. If she was somehow going to be split into atoms and fly through time and space she wanted to know why and how.

“Random, I think, but it’s hard to tell since you can’t always tell me where you’ve been. Can’t know too much about my own future, you see.”

“I’ve never jumped until now, why?”

“I’m sorry, Gemma, I really am, but I can’t tell you why.”

“Why not?”

“If I do, it might never happen.”

“Are you telling me that I could actually prevent it from ever happening? That if I get the choice I might be too scared to choose the right one?” Gemma frowned at the Doctor, feeling herself grow angry with what he was telling her. Who was he to decide what was right for her? What if she didn’t want any of this?

“Yes. And I’m sorry, I really am.”

“You’re sorry? That’s it? Maybe I don’t want this, maybe I just wanna stay here and live a normal life, get married and even have kids! But you’re not even giving me the choice! Being a Time Lord doesn’t just give you the right to decide what’s best for everyone!”

A pregnant silence filled the car as Gemma tried to get her breathing back to normal, but the strain on her voice was painfully scratching her throat and she bended over in another coughing fit.

When she felt the Doctor’s hands on her shoulders she quickly leaned away from him, turning in her seat as her lungs heaved for air.

“Gemma, you need to listen to me. I know you’ll hate me for doing this to you, but you need to listen. All the things you’ve done, the things we’ve done together, will never happen if you choose to stay here. And I’m not asking you to do this for me. I want you to be happy, with or without me, but I need you to understand how much depends on this.”

“So I’m giving up my life for the greater good, is that it?” Gemma bit back and tried to ignore how the Doctor flinched at her tone of voice.

“Look, I know this is against the rules,” Donna told her softly as she leaned towards Gemma, “but trust me when I tell you that travelling with the Doctor is the best thing that has ever happened to you. And I’m not just talking from my own experience. You told me this yourself. And you told me of this day and how scared you were. And it’s okay to be scared, Gemma. But I promise you, you will not regret this, not one day for the rest of your life.”

Gemma watched in stunned silence as Donna spoke and could see that she meant every word of it. Slowly, she turned her head to look at the Doctor, who was staring at her intently with his big, sad eyes and Gemma found it hard to look away.

“I suppose there really is no decision to make since I’ve already done it. Otherwise we wouldn’t be sitting here.” Gemma sighed and felt herself deflate as her anger slowly left her. “So will you tell me? If I promise to do it no matter what, will you then tell me?”

“It’s the TARDIS,” the Doctor told after a long pause and Gemma’s lips parted in surprise. “It’s the spark that starts it all.”

“And it’s gonna happen today?”

“Yes,” Donna told her as the Doctor didn’t actually know when and how exactly. But Gemma had prepared Donna, knowing that she would need the other woman’s help.

“Will I ever see my parents again?”

“Of course, we visit from time to time,” the Doctor assured her, making Gemma smile.

“And Martha? I suppose I’ll get to travel with her in her past?”

“To the end of the universe and back.” The Doctor grinned and Gemma raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“Literally?”

“Spoilers,” the Doctor replied and Gemma rolled her eyes, thinking that she would very soon grow tired of that word.

“I’m gonna hate that word, aren’t I?”

“Actually, he gets it from you. Makes him bonkers,” Donna explained with a thumb pointed at the Doctor, who groaned as a wide smile spread on Gemma’s lips.

“Donna, do you know you just created a paradox?” Gemma said and suddenly felt giddy with excitement.

The Doctor might know a lot about her that he couldn’t tell her, but it probably wouldn’t be long before the tables turned and Gemma got to use that word on him.

“I did? What did I do?” Donna asked in surprise and looked at the Doctor for an answer.

“Gemma has never told me why she’s always saying ‘spoilers’, but that’s because she got it from me, right here, right now. And the only reason I said ‘spoilers’ is because she’s always saying it. So where did the word come from? Who first got the idea to use it?”

“Would you look at me!” Donna exclaimed, grinning happily and the Doctor let out a deep sigh as the two women high-fived.

The mood in the car immediately turned serious as they made it to the factory to find UNIT soldier running around and white smoke everywhere. They jumped out of the car as soon as it came to a stop and Gemma instantly missed the uncontaminated air inside the car as she started coughing.

“Ross, look after yourself, get inside the building,” the Doctor told Ross through the window before turning to leave with Donna and Gemma.

“Will do,” Ross replied and lifted the radio to his mouth to inform the base about their arrival.

“Ross, wait!” Gemma called out to him as she ran back to the car, leaning through the window to kiss his cheek. “Be careful, okay? And if I never see you again, just promise you’ll have a great life. Be amazing. And maybe sent me an invite to your wedding, when you finally decide to get down on one knee.”

“Goodbye, Gemma.” Ross smiled at the woman, who had become his friend over the last couple of months and then watched as she ran off.

“Everything okay?” the Doctor asked, when she caught up with him and Donna, and Gemma nodded, although she could feel a lump in her throat.

“Just so you know, since I probably won’t have much time for dating after today, you’ll have to be my wedding date,” Gemma told him with a finger pointed at him, not noticing the way the Doctor smiled at her as she was busy coughing.

“Right, okay, whose wedding are we going to?”

“Ross’, when he finally finds the courage to ask his boyfriend.”

“Brilliant! I love Ross.”

“The air is disgusting!” Donna coughed from beside them, interrupting their small moment and Gemma nodded in agreement.

“It's not so bad for me, go on, get inside the TARDIS,” the Doctor told the two of them, not noticing Gemma freeze as he suddenly remembered something. “Oh, never given you a key!”

“Keep that!” the Doctor said as he gave Donna a key to the TARDIS, smiling down at her. “Go on, that's yours! Quite a big moment really!”

“Yeah, maybe we can get sentimental after the world's finished choking to death,” Donna replied with a cough as she took the key and the Doctor’s smile fell.

“Good idea.”

“Doctor?” Gemma spoke quietly, when it looked like he was about to run off and he quickly pulled her into his arms, when he saw the fear in her eyes.

“It’s gonna be okay. I’ll come with and then go back afterwards.”

He wanted to be there for her, to help her, but he had also realised that it wasn’t going to happen like that. She would disappear in a dust of golden light and he wouldn’t be there with her.

“No, it’s okay. You have to stop the end of the world after all,” Gemma said with a teary smile. “Just say hi to Martha for me.”

“I will. Gemma, you’re going to my future, but whenever you end up I promise I’ll be there.”

“I might yell at you,” Gemma warned him jokingly, but had a feeling it wasn’t that far from the truth.

“All you want.” The Doctor smiled and Gemma closed her eyes as he leaned down and placed a kiss on the top of her head before he ran off towards the factory.

“Come on. Let’s go find the TARDIS,” Donna urged her carefully despite the fact that she was slowly choking and the two women ran as fast as they could to where the TARDIS was parked in an alley.

Donna’s coughing was getting worse as she struggled to get the key inside the hole and didn’t notice Gemma’s hesitation before she was inside. Looking out of the door, she found Gemma watching the TARDIS with wide eyes and held a hand out towards her.

“It’s okay, Gem. Just come inside.”

“Do you promise that all you said is true? That I’ll never regret this?”

“I do.”

Carefully, Gemma reached forward and took Donna’s hand to let herself be pulled inside. She felt a tingling spark light up her nerves as her free hand brushed the door on her way in, but became distracted as soon as she saw the inside of the ship.

“It’s beautiful,” Gemma breathed as she took a turn around herself to get a look of everything.

It had clearly been remodelled a few times since her parents had been inside as the white walls with the big round holes were gone and the console in the middle of the room had been elevated. While she had never seen the TARDIS before, she had been told enough stories to have a picture of it inside her mind.

But this was much more than she had expected. Everything was in a coral colour that made Gemma feel like she was surrounded by a warm light and looking up she felt like she was inside a cathedral. Four beams stood around the console, all with an elongated hole in the middle as if someone had tried to pull them apart.

“Not gonna say ‘it’s bigger on the inside’?” Donna called from the door, where she was leaning against a railing as she tried to catch her breath.

“I already knew it would be, but this is all so much more amazing than what I had imagined. It’s changed a lot since my parents travelled with him. Do you think she remembers?” Gemma asked as she moved around the console and carefully rested her hand on it, feeling the same tingling sensation as she had moments earlier.

She was surprised, when the TARDIS suddenly hummed quietly as if answering her question and she grinned at Donna, who came over to stand beside her.

“It does that sometimes, like it can hear you. You and the Doctor, if you’re not talking to each other, you’re talking to the TARDIS,” Donna told her, revealing more than she probably should, but she could feel Gemma calm down the more she talked about her future. “Can you feel anything yet?”

“I think. There’s this sort of tingling in the tip of my fingers,” Gemma replied quietly and wiggled her fingers in front of her eyes.

When specks of golden dust started appearing around them, she quickly pulled them away and stretched out her arm as much as possible. Looking at her other hand, the same thing was happening, and Gemma watched with wide eyes as the golden dust twirled up around her arms.

“Is it gonna hurt?” she asked fearfully, when the dust reminded her of how painful her regeneration had been and tears sprung to her eyes as she looked at Donna.

“Yeah, but only for a few seconds. You told me once that it gets better over time,” Donna told with a reassuring smile and slowly stepped away as the light encompassed all of Gemma. “Just remember to breathe.”

Donna stared in wonder as the dust twirled around Gemma faster and faster, having never seen the process in slow motion like this. Usually, only a few seconds would pass from when Gemma felt the tingling till she disappeared in a tornado of golden light.

“Thank you, Donna,” Gemma called through the light, her voice already sounding as if it was far away, and Donna didn’t get the chance to answer before she was suddenly alone.


	3. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You promised you’d tell me,” she reminded him. 
> 
> “I haven’t broken that promise yet.”
> 
> “Why should I trust you?”
> 
> “I’m the Doctor.” 
> 
> “That line doesn’t work on me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for Listen - episode 04x8

“I haven't actually said yes,” Clara reminded as she followed the Doctor into the TARDIS with her heels in hand as she had taken them off after her disastrous date with Danny. For once she didn’t want to go on an adventure with the Doctor, but just stay at home and wallow.

“You know sometimes when you talk to yourself, what if you're not?” the Doctor asked without listening to her, spinning around to look at her with excitement shining in his grey eyes.

“Not what?”

“What if it's not you you're talking to? Proposition. What if no one is ever really alone?” the Doctor ranted as he gestured with his hands and Clara frowned. “What if every single living being has a companion, a silent passenger, a shadow? What if the prickle on the back of your neck is the breath of something close behind you?”

“I thought Gemma would be here,” Clara said as she glanced around, but couldn’t find the other woman. A worrying thought hit her and she let out a small sigh. “How long have you been travelling alone?”

“Perhaps I never have.”

They were interrupted as a swirl of golden dust suddenly appeared behind the Doctor, and a woman with red hair appeared in the middle of the TARDIS.

Clara smiled as perhaps this meant Gemma could go with the Doctor instead, while she stayed home. But something seemed to be wrong as Gemma inhaled sharply and then collapsed on the floor.

“Gemma! Oh, my God!” Clara exclaimed and quickly ran to her friend on the floor, making sure she was still breathing. Luckily she was and Clara placed the woman’s head in her lap as she sat on the floor with her.

“Ah, I was wondering when this day was gonna come,” the Doctor mused, when he noticed the clothes Gemma was wearing, and squatted down beside her body to get a better look at her. It had been a while since he had seen her this young.

“What do you mean?” Clara asked, glancing up at him as her fingers gently pushed Gemma’s red locks out of her face.

“This is the youngest you’re ever gonna see her. This is the first time Gemma’s jumped,” the Doctor explained as he took Gemma’s pulse and found that it was only a bit faster than usual.

For him it was centuries ago that Gemma had first met him, but he easily remembered the dress she was wearing and the scared look on her face as he left her to go stop the Sontarans.

“Really? So she doesn’t even know who I am?” Clara asked with wide eyes and her fingers paused as they calmed through Gemma’s hair.

“No. I’m not sure she’ll even recognize me.”

“Doctor?” Gemma spoke as her eyes fluttered open and for a moment all she could see was a blurry vision of a grey-haired, older man looking down at her.

“Hello.” The Doctor smiled and reached down to catch the tear that fell from the corner of her eye.

“Where am I?” Gemma asked as she glanced around, finding that she was no longer in the coral console room she had just left. This was one was darker and had a blue hue from the lights on the walls.

“In the TARDIS.”

“You’ve redecorated,” Gemma noted as she looked at the walkway which surrounded the console and then at the console itself. Its round shape had been replaced with a sextant and was now silvery grey.

“Do you like it?”

“Ask me again, when I get up from here,” Gemma groaned as she tried to lift her head, but let it fall back down, when she felt it spin with dizziness. It was only then she noticed that her head was elevated and the floor underneath her was soft.

Tilting her head backwards she saw a brunette woman looking down at her and realized she was lying with her head in the woman’s lap. Gemma didn’t recognize her, but the brunette smiled down at her with familiarity.

“Hi. I’m Gemma,” she introduced herself to the woman, who nodded as she already knew.

“Clara,” the brunette replied and Gemma offered a brief smile.

“And you’ve met me before I’m guessing.”

“Known you for quite a while actually.”

“Fantastic,” Gemma muttered sarcastically as Clara would be another person who knew more about her than Gemma did of Clara.

“I should probably get off the floor,” she continued as her mind slowly cleared of the confusion she felt and Clara helped her lift her head as the Doctor grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Ow.” Gemma grimaced, when her body painfully protested her moving and she felt an arm wrap around her waist, when she stumbled forward.

Looking up she met the Doctor’s eyes and couldn’t help but notice how much older they looked. Not because of the grey hair, but on their own; filled with knowledge and pain. She was surprised to find that she actually recognized him despite the change of appearances.

“You’ve gone Scottish. And grey,” she told the Doctor with half a smile and was almost tempted to reach up and touch his hair.

“Oh, of course you would say that. You just came from Mister Pretty Boy,” the Doctor complained as he stepped away from her and Gemma grabbed the console to keep her balance instead.

“Did you just call yourself pretty?” Gemma asked with raised eyebrows and the Doctor glowered at her before running up a staircase, filled with books on every step, to the walkway.

“Come on, Clara, come and see,” he called for the companion as he stopped by a chalkboard, where the word 'LISTEN' was written. Clara sighed and shared a quick look with a confused Gemma before she walked upstairs to the Doctor.

“What’s going on?” Gemma called after them as she carefully followed, grabbing the rail for support up the stairs. Every muscle in her body was sore and all she really wanted to do was lie down on a bed, but she was also curious to see what Clara and the Doctor were doing.

_Do I even have a bed? Or a room?_

She then briefly wondered where Donna had disappeared to, but knew the Doctor had always travelled with a lot of different people. Who knew how many had been inside the TARDIS since Donna had left?

“It looks like your handwriting,” Clara told the Doctor as she studied the word written on the board with her arms crossed in front of her. She glanced worriedly at Gemma over her shoulder as the tired redhead stretched her body in the hopes of getting rid of the pain.

“Well, I couldn't have written it and forgotten, could I?” the Doctor replied from halfway down the stairwell and didn’t seem to mind Gemma, who suddenly yawned loudly.  

“Have you met you?” Clara snorted and pulled Gemma into the chair stood by a desk strewn with open books. “What's all this?”

The Doctor followed them and watched as the two women each picked up a book and started flipping through the pages.

“Dreams. Accounts of dreams by different people, all through history. You see, I have a theory,” he told them with an intense look in his eyes and Gemma looked at him in expectation, waiting for him to continue.

“Tell us then,” she urged the Doctor, whose eyes shifted from Clara to her and the corner of his mouth curved into a vague smile, when he noticed that colour was slowly returning to her cheeks.

He was surprised by how calmly she was taking the whole thing as he knew she had to be tired and overwhelmed, but he also expected it all to come crashing down on her later, when her mind caught up with what was happening to her.   

“I think everybody, at some point in their lives, has the exact same nightmare. You wake up, or you think you do, and there's someone in the dark, someone close, or you think there might be. So you sit up and turn on the light. And the room looks different at night. It ticks and creaks and breathes. And you tell yourself there's nobody there, nobody watching, nobody listening, nobody there at all. And you very nearly believe it. You really, really try and then a hand reaches from under the bed and grabs you.”

Gemma stared at the Doctor with wide eyes, her breath having caught in her throat as she listened, and then shook her head to get rid of the image that had appeared inside her mind. She couldn’t remember ever having that exact dream, though.

“There are accounts of that dream throughout human history,” the Doctor continued as he carefully pulled Gemma out of the chair and helped her down the stairs with an arm around her shoulders. It was getting easier for her to stay on her feet, but she still felt a little dizzy every time she had to move around.

“Time and time again, the same dream. Now, there is a very obvious question I'm about to ask you. Do you know what it is?”

“Have you had that dream?” Clara asked the Doctor instead of replying and Gemma watched their exchange with interest from where she was leaning against the TARDIS console.

It was weird seeing the Doctor with another companion than Donna, but at the same time the dynamic between them felt the same. Like Clara could see through the Doctor’s antics the same way Donna seemed to do.

“Exactly,” the Doctor said, thinking Clara had answered his question.

“No, that was me asking you. Have you had that dream?”

“I asked first.”

“No, I did.”

“You really didn't,” the Doctor retorted, making Gemma roll her eyes. She wondered if he always had to be right. The answer was most likely yes.

“She really did, Doctor,” Gemma commented from the side, but was ignored as Clara decided to end the argument.  

“Okay, yeah, I’ve probably had that dream. Yes. But everyone dreams about something under the bed.”

“Why?” the Doctor asked and Gemma frowned as she hadn’t really thought about that before.

While she didn’t remember anything ever grabbing her, she definitely had been afraid of the dark as a child and the space underneath her bed had never seemed particularly inviting.

Gemma followed the Doctor around the console as he grabbed Clara’s hands and pushed her fingers into a holed panel, which looked like it was made of a silicone-like substance.

“Just hold on tight. If anything bites, let it,” the Doctor told as he let go of her hands, and Gemma was certain she heard a growling sound coming from the TARDIS.

“It bites? Is that safe?” she questioned doubtfully and walked over to look at the screen the Doctor was standing in front of. Everything was new to her and she was curious to see how the TARDIS was controlled, so she carefully watched the Doctor’s every move.

“Safe enough.”

“What is it?” Clara asked, glancing between her fingers and the Doctor.   

“TARDIS telepathic interface. You are now in mental contact with the TARDIS, so don't think anything rude,” the Doctor told her and the panel made a squishy sound as Clara pushed her fingers deeper into it.

“Why not?” Clara asked with a wide-eyed look and suddenly looked like she wanted to pull her fingers back out.  

“It might end up on all of the screens. The TARDIS is extrapolating your entire timeline, from the moment of your birth to the moment of your death.”

“Which I do not need a preview of,” Clara muttered, talking more to the TARDIS than Gemma and the Doctor.

“What if she starts thinking about naked men? Will the TARDIS show us them then?” Gemma joked and Clara giggled behind her while the Doctor gave her a look that told her he didn’t think it was funny.

“Don’t give her any ideas,” he chided and shifted his eyes back to the screen in front of him.  

“I'm turning off the safeguards and navigation, slaving the TARDIS to you,” the Doctor told as he pushed the screen with him around the console to get to Clara.

“Focus on the dream. Focus on the details. Picture them, feel them,” he instructed her, slowly leaning closer to emphasize his words. “The TARDIS will track your subconscious and extract the relevant information. It should be able to home in on the moment in your timeline when you first had that dream. And then, we'll see.”   

“What will we see?” Clara asked quietly and while Gemma couldn’t see her face from her side of the console, she could tell that Clara was nervous.

“What's under your bed,” the Doctor whispered and then grinned before he turned his back to her and started pressing various buttons on the console. “Gemma, the handle in front of you, push it up.”

“This one?” Gemma questioned as she carefully placed her hand on what looked like a big switch, surprised that he was actually letting her help. Maybe it was something she did often in her future and he was just forgetting this was her first time ever travelling with the TARDIS.

“Exactly,” the Doctor replied without looking and Gemma hesitated for a moment longer before she did as told.

A wheezing noise filled the room as soon as Gemma flipped the handle upwards and she grinned as the TARDIS seemingly took off. She felt her heart race with excitement and caught the eyes of the Doctor, who was watching her with an affectionate smile.

“Okay, now don't get distracted,” the Doctor ordered Clara as he turned to her and the brunette closed her eyes as she tried to concentrate. “Remember, you are flying a time machine.”

Clara flinched when her phone suddenly rang and her concentration broke for a moment as Danny popped into her thoughts.

“No, no. Don't you dare. No, don't. Don't, don't,” the Doctor admonished as he quickly ran to her side and found her phone in the pocket of her jacket, throwing it over his shoulder. “Just ignore it.”

“Okay, that's good. That worked. We're here,” the Doctor said and checked the date on the screen, when the TARDIS became quiet as they reached their destination.

“Sorry, I think I got distracted,” Clara spoke as the Doctor ran towards the door with Gemma, who suddenly didn’t felt tired, on his heels. She was running on adrenalin and the fact that she had just flown with the TARDIS distracted her from the lingering soreness in her body.

“No, no, no, no. The date's fine,” the Doctor reassured as he looked back at Clara, who still had her fingers stuck in the panel. “Come on.”

“Come on where?” Clara asked, slightly confused about where they were going and what the Doctor was planning. He couldn’t seriously expect to find something, or someone, actually hiding under the bed.  

“Your childhood,” the Doctor said as he grabbed Gemma’s hand and led her out of the TARDIS without waiting for Clara.

“You should probably buy Clara a new phone,” Gemma told the Doctor as she stared at the large house standing in front of them, shuddering against the cold wind. It was night, dark all around them, and Gemma stepped closer to the Doctor as he dropped her hand. 

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you threw away the other one.”

“You’ve just travelled in time for the first time and the first thing you think about is Clara’s phone,” the Doctor complained as he threw a hand into the air in disbelieve and a wide smile appeared on Gemma’s lips.

“I just travelled in the TARDIS,” she whispered to the Doctor excitedly.

“I know, I was there,” the Doctor replied.

“Are you always this grumpy?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“How old are you?” Gemma asked bluntly, when the thought suddenly hit her and she wondered how far in the future she had travelled.

“I’ve been told by Clara that’s offensive to ask.”

“Only if you’re a middle-aged woman. So?”

“Honestly, I’ve lost track, but a couple thousand years, I think.”

“Two thousand years? And I thought I was getting old.”

“So where exactly are we?” Clara called out from behind them as she exited the TARDIS and they both turned to look at her.

“The West Country Children's Home, Gloucester. By the ozone level and the drains, mid-nineties,” the Doctor told as he looked at Clara expectantly, waiting for her to recognize the place. “You must have been here when you had the dream.”

“Never been to Gloucester in my life and I've never lived in a children's home.” Clara frowned as she hugged herself to keep warm and looked around, just as wary of the dark as Gemma was.  

“You've probably just forgotten. Have you seen the size of human brains? They're hilarious. Little you must be in here somewhere with your little brain.”

“Rude,” Gemma muttered under her breath, but the Doctor heard her and rolled his eyes.

“Isn't it bad if I meet myself?”

“It is potentially catastrophic,” the Doctor realized as he scratched his cheek in thought.

“So why did you bring me out here?” Clara questioned in disbelieve, her voice becoming high-pitched with annoyance.  

“I was still talking. I needed someone to nod,” the Doctor replied as he grabbed Clara’s shoulders and pushed her back towards the TARDIS. “Probably best for you to wait in the TARDIS.”

“Doctor!“ Clara exclaimed as she looked at the Time Lord over her shoulder and then sent Gemma a helpless look as if she expected her to say something. Not that Gemma had any idea what that should be or why the Doctor would even listen to her.

“See you in a minute. TARDIS,” the Doctor instructed with a pointed finger and pushed Clara towards the TARDIS again.

“Doctor,” Clara protested again as she turned around to find that the Doctor, with Gemma in tow, was walking backwards away from her. “If I was distracted, what would have happened?”

“We would probably have ended up in the wrong place. But don't think we have, because the time zone's right. We won't be long,” the Doctor assured Clara before he quickly disappeared inside the building alongside Gemma.

“Maybe I should’ve stayed with Clara outside?” Gemma suggested quietly as they walked down a dimly lit hall towards wherever the Doctor wanted them to go, and she almost hoped he would agree with her and send her back.

The big house had looked scary from the outside, but it was nothing compared how it felt to be inside, and a shiver travelled down Gemma’s spine as she stared into a dark corner; almost certain something looked back at her.

“No, you’re staying with me. I need to make sure you don’t do anything stupid like faint or wander off.”

“Why would I faint?”

“Once the adrenalin and residual energy from the time jump leaves your body, you will most likely faint of exhaustion. The human body, it’s so fragile.”

“Was that an insult?” Gemma asked with a frown as she sidestepped away from a creepy painting of an old man, who seemed to follow her with his eyes.

“Well, it can’t be an insult if it’s true, can it now?” the Doctor said as he waved off her question and brought her to a stop outside a room with an open door.

Light was shining into the hall from it and Gemma carefully poked her head inside to find it empty despite the faint sound of a TV playing in the background. Behind her the Doctor was sonicing their surroundings, but paused when an older man stepped into the room.

“How did you get in?” the man asked as he quickly noticed Gemma and the Doctor. The TV Gemma had heard was in the room the man had just come from and the light from it could be seen through a tinted window.

“Your door must be faulty,” the Doctor told as they stepped into the room and he pulled out something from the inner pocket of his jacket, showing it to the man.

“An inspection? It's two in the morning,” the caretaker read out loud, making Gemma frown when she took it from the Doctor and only saw a blank piece of paper.

“When better?” the Doctor questioned with a side glance at Gemma, who was inspecting his psychic paper. He already knew it didn’t work on her, but this was her first time learning that as well. “Do you always work here nights?”

“Most nights, yes,” the man replied with a quick look at Gemma, who put the paper back into one of the Doctor’s pockets. Her eyes widened for a moment, when she sensed how impossibly deep it was and quickly withdrew her hand.

_His pockets… they’re bigger on the inside. Of course._

“Do you ever end up talking to yourself?” the Doctor questioned, ignoring Gemma’s bafflement, and the other man laughed dryly. 

“All the time. It's this place. You can't help it.”

“What about your coffee?” the Doctor asked with a gesture towards the mug standing on the desk behind the caretaker, and both Gemma and the man glanced at it in confusion.

“My coffee?”

“Sometimes, do you put it down and look around, and it's not there?”

“Everybody does that.”

“I’ve done that,” Gemma supplied, making the Doctor look at her with a serious expression.

“Yes. Everybody.”

The TV-light shining through the tinted window behind them suddenly disappeared and so did the voices coming from the TV. Someone had turned it off.

“Who turned your telly off?” the Doctor asked as he grabbed Gemma’s hand and the caretaker turned around to look through the window.

“It does that. It just goes off,” the caretaker told them while looking away, and Gemma and the Doctor silently slipped out of the room.

As they walked down a hall, away from the caretaker, the Doctor made a satisfied hum while he took a sip from the mug he had just stolen.

“Was that really necessary?” Gemma questioned and glared at him, when he offered the cup of coffee to her, but took it back as soon as he saw the irritated look in her eyes.

“I was thirsty.”

“I mean the whole disappearing-without-a-trace-act.”

“Think about how boring his life must be! Now he can tell the story of the two strangers who asked weird questions and then left as if they had never even been there. Of course, who knows if people will even believe him. I probably wouldn’t.”

“You can be quite an ass sometimes, y’know,” Gemma told him with a roll of her eyes, but the Doctor just smiled.

“So that makes me patronizing, rude and an ass,” the Doctor recalled as he remembered what Gemma had called him all those centuries ago, when she first met him.

“And I still have no idea why you’re holding my hand,” Gemma added as she lifted their joined hands in the air, even though the Doctor was too busy to look at them.

“Do you want me to let go?” he asked, quickly glancing at her as he found his sonic screwdriver, and the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile, when Gemma shook her head after a moment of thought.

She would rather feel awkward holding the Doctor’s hand, which really wasn’t that bad, than suddenly be left alone in this dark, big house if he decided to take off without telling her.

“That paper you showed the caretaker, why did he think we were here for an inspection?” Gemma then asked as she tried to distract herself from how warm the Doctor’s hand suddenly felt around hers.

“He thinks he saw our credentials, but only because I wanted him to. It’s a psychic paper,” the Doctor explained to her as he soniced their surroundings and reached into his pocket for the paper without looking.

“This is the psychic paper?” Gemma asked, slightly underwhelmed by the look of it after what she had read about it. “But I don’t understand. Why is it just blank when I look at it?”

“It doesn’t work on everybody. If you’re a genius you might find it blank, because the gamma waves in your brain work at a higher frequency than other beings,” the Doctor told her as they walked to the end of the hall and then walked up the stairs to the next floor. “An astounding lack of imagination might do the trick as well, of course.”

“So either I’m a genius or have no imagination,” Gemma stated with a blank expression on her face.

“Exactly.”

Gemma let go of the Doctor’s hand as she followed him up the stairs, where a maze of hallways waited for them. It would take them a while to check every room on the floor to find Clara, Gemma quickly realized, but it wasn’t long before they found an open door and the Doctor strolled inside without knocking.

The room was only lit up by a white neon lamp over the bed, where a child sat, hiding underneath a red bedspread. Gemma opened her mouth to greet the child, but the Doctor shushed her silently with a finger over his mouth.

“Who else is in this room?” Gemma then heard someone whisper from underneath the bed and the voice was strangely familiar. 

“Nobody,” another voice whispered back, a boy, and Gemma looked at the Doctor in confusion, only to find him sitting in a chair beside a bookshelf. With a finger he beckoned her closer and gestured at her to choose a book, while the whispering continued.

“Someone must have come in.”

Reaching blindly, while she kept her eyes on the bed, Gemma chose a random book and gave it to the Doctor, who casually flipped the pages. His stolen coffee mug was placed on the bookshelf beside him.

Gemma had no idea what was going on, but the figure on the bed was starting to scare her and the Doctor’s nonchalant behaviour was annoying her. 

“Nobody came in,” the boy underneath the bed whispered and Gemma startled in surprise, when Clara suddenly rolled out and stood up beside the bed, not noticing Gemma and the Doctor.

“Hello?” Clara called at the figure underneath the bedspread and slowly moved around the bed without taking her eyes of it. 

“Who's this?” she asked the young boy, who appeared from underneath the bed, and helped him stand up.  “This is a friend of yours playing a game.”

“Playing a trick, are you, hey?” Clara questioned the hidden figure more forcefully, when the boy shook his head. “A little trick on Rupert here?”

The bed creaked as the figure shifted and suddenly grew taller, looming over Clara as if to appear more threatening. Gemma’s eyes jumped between the bed and the Doctor, finding that the latter was still busy reading the book she had given him. She felt a sudden urge to rip it out of his hands and smack him with it.

“Okay. It's not funny this, you know,” Clara told the figure as she wrapped a protecting arm around Rupert and took a step back.

Unable to take anymore, Gemma flicked on the lamp on the bookshelf, and Clara and the boy turned to look at them as the room was suddenly lit up.

“Where is he?” the Doctor asked in an annoyed tone as he rapidly turned the pages and, without wanting to, Gemma looked down to figure out who he was searching for.

“Doctor?” Clara said, a hint of panic in her voice, as she looked at the creature on the bed over her shoulder.

“I can't find him,” the Doctor complained loudly before addressing Rupert, who seemed distracted by the strange, old man. “Can you find him?”

“Find who?” Clara asked and shared a confused look with Gemma, who lifted her eyes from the book to once again stare at the unknown creature under the bedspread.

“Wally,” the Doctor replied as if it made perfect sense and Gemma felt herself getting closer to regretting ever stepping a foot unto the TARDIS. The Doctor was mad, absolutely mad, and she should have known better.

“Wally?” Gemma echoed without taking her eyes off the bed and was only a little surprised, when she felt a larger hand wrap around her own.

“He's nowhere in this book,” the Doctor explained as he showed Rupert the open book.

“It's not a _Where's Wally_ one,” Rupert told, having seemingly forgotten the creature on his bed. Gemma realized with a brief smile that this was probably the Doctor’s plan: to distract the boy from his fear of the unknown creature.  

“Well, how would you know? Maybe you just haven't found him yet,” the Doctor pointed out as he leaned forward, closing the book.

“He's not in every book.”

“Really? Well, that's a few years of my life I'll be needing back,” the Doctor said before he quickly stood up, put down the book, and pulled Gemma with him towards Rupert and Clara. “Are you scared?”

“The thing on the bed, whatever it is, look at it. Does it scare you?” the Doctor asked Rupert as he let go of Gemma’s hand to move around the boy, so Rupert could look at the bed.  

“Yes,” Rupert breathed as he looked down at the Doctor, who was crouching in front of him.  

“Well, that's good. Want to know why that's good?”

“Why?”

“Let me tell you about scared. Your heart is beating so hard, I can feel it through your hands,” the Doctor told as he grabbed Rupert’s hand. “There's so much blood and oxygen pumping through your brain, it's like rocket fuel.”

“Right now, you could run faster and you could fight harder, you could jump higher than ever in your life. And you are so alert, it's like you can slow down time,” the Doctor continued animatedly as he acted out everything with his hands and Gemma felt her affection for him slowly grow.

“What's wrong with scared? Scared is a superpower. It's your superpower. There is danger in this room and guess what? It's you. Do you feel it?” the Doctor asked and Rupert gave a quick nod in reply.

“Do you think he feels it? Do you think he's scared?” the Doctor then asked with a gesture towards the creature on the bed, making Gemma’s eyes turn to it as it shifted slightly. “Nah. Loser. Turn your back on him.”

“What?” Rupert exclaimed in surprise and Gemma couldn’t help but frown as well, although she was slowly learning not to doubt the Doctor.  

“Yeah, turn your back on him. Come on. You too, Gemma,” the Doctor told them as he turned his back to the bed and walked over to a window to stare out of it. Gemma quickly followed him and the Doctor’s voice became serious as he instructed the other companion to do the same. “Clara, your back, now.”

“Do it. Just do it now. Turn your back. Do it now, turn your back,” the Doctor urged Rupert, when Clara joined them and Gemma reached backwards for the boy’s hand. “Lovely view out this window.”

“Very lovely,” Gemma commented and quickly wrapped her fingers around the small hand that grabbed hers, pulling Rupert in between Clara and herself.

“Yeah. Come and see all the dark,” Clara added with feigned admiration.

“The deep and lovely dark. We'd never see the stars without it,” the Doctor said before continuing in a more urgent tone. “Now, there are two possibilities. Possibility one, it's just one of your friends standing there, and he's playing a joke on you. Possibility two, it isn't.”

“So, plan?” Clara asked the Doctor, making them all look at him in expectation. “Plans are good.”

“You on the bed, I'm talking to you now. Go in peace. We won't look. Just go. If all you want to do is stay hidden, it's okay. Just leave,” the Doctor told the creature behind them and Gemma’s pulse started racing, when she heard the coils of the bed squeak.  

“Is it gone?” Clara whispered as she turned her head slightly to look at the Doctor, and Gemma got the distinct feeling that it wasn’t.

“Don't look round. Not yet,” the Doctor told them as he remained frozen, forcing himself not to turn around and satisfy his own curiosity. Not when there was a chance he might bring others, especially a child, in danger.   

“I can't hear anything,” Rupert spoke as he slightly turned his ear towards the bed and Gemma squeezed his hand, telling him not to look.  

“Don’t look,” Gemma whispered to the boy, but he wasn’t listening and Rupert was about to turn his head fully, when the Doctor yelled at him.

“Look away! Look away now! Don't look at it! Don't look round. Don't look round. Don't look at the reflection.”

“What is it?” Rupert asked, his voice trembling with fear, and Gemma breathed slowly to get her own sense of panic under control.  

“Imagine a thing that must never be seen. What would it do if you saw it?”

“I don't know.”

“Neither do I. Close your eyes,” the Doctor instructed them and Gemma grabbed his hand as she quickly did what she was told.  

“What?”

“Close your eyes. You too, Clara. Give it what it wants. Prove to it that you're not going to look at it. Make a promise. A promise you're never going to look at it.”

“I promise never to look,” Rupert spoke loudly and for a long moment nothing seemed to happen. Then she felt it. The hairs lifting on her arms, her skin prickling as goose bumps appeared.

“The breath on the back of your neck, like your hair's standing on end. That means don't look,” the Doctor whispered as they waited for the creature to leave and Gemma let out a sigh of relief, when the door behind them suddenly slammed shut.  

“Gone,” Clara said as they all turned around to look at the empty room and Gemma let go of Rupert and the Doctor’s hands at the same time.

“Gone,” Gemma and the Doctor spoke simultaneously.   

“He took my bedspread,” Rupert complained, when he saw that the blanket was missing from his bed, and Gemma couldn’t help but laugh quietly at the boy. 

“Oh, the human race. You're never happy, are you?” the Doctor said with a roll of his eyes and then walked over to the door, peeking into the hall to check if the creature was in fact fully gone.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed,” Clara told Rupert as she led him over to the bed and made him sit on top of it.  

“Am I safe now?” the boy asked as Clara went through a small box of toys, while the Doctor had found an orange robot to tinker with. Neither of them noticed Gemma slightly stacker on her feet as she suddenly felt dizzy.

“Nobody's safe, especially not at night in the dark, anything can get you. And all the way up here, you're up here all alone,” the Doctor told Rupert, making Clara slap the back of his head.

“What was that for?”

“Shut up, leave this to me,” Clara told as she grabbed the small box of toys and placed it on Rupert’s bed, crouching at the end of the bed.  

“These yours?”

“They're the home's.”

“They're yours now.”

“People don't need to be lied to,” the Doctor commented as he put down the robot and Clara turned her head to glare at him.

“People don't need to be scared by a big grey-haired stick insect, but here you are. Stay still, shut up,” she ordered and then turned back to Rupert, taking a small plastic soldier from the box. “See what I'm doing? This is your army.”

“Plastic army,” the Doctor said as he got up from the chair he was sitting in, noticing that Gemma was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed.   

“Shut up!” Clara told the Doctor once again and briefly followed him with her eyes as he walked over to Gemma.

“What’s wrong?” the Doctor asked quietly as he came to stand in front of Gemma, who opened her eyes and offered him a wavering smile.

“It’s nothing, I’m just feeling a bit dizzy,” she explained as she pushed herself off the wall and almost fell into the Doctor, when she lost her balance.

Behind them Clara was talking to Rupert about the plastic soldiers and Gemma noticed Clara pause as Rupert named one of the soldiers Dan.

“Your pulse is racing,” the Doctor said as he gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist, making Gemma’s eyes shift back to him. “Are you still scared?”

“No,” Gemma answered truthfully, even though she could see that her hands were trembling as she looked down. “I thought you said being scared was a superpower.”

“For a short while. But now the adrenalin is fading and your body is still recovering from being separated into atoms and travelling through the time vortex,” the Doctor explained calmly as he placed a hand on each side of her head to look her over.

Gemma thought about how a much younger version of him had done the exact same thing less than an hour ago, from her perspective. And now she was here, over a thousand years into his future, and that alone was enough to overwhelm her.

The sudden realization of what had happened made tears spring to her eyes and she was happy that Rupert grabbed the Doctor’s attention long enough for her to blink them away.  

“Would you read me a story? It'll help me get to sleep,” the boy asked Clara, who had just finished telling him about Dan the soldier man, which he was now holding in his hand. 

“Sure.”

“Once upon a time,” the Doctor interrupted as he walked over and pressed a finger to Rupert’s forehead, making him fall back as he immediately went to sleep. “The end.”

“Dad skills,” he told Clara, who was staring at him in surprise, and then walked back to Gemma, who had a faraway look in her eyes. “Come on, let’s go you back to the TARDIS.”

Gemma silently followed him out of the room as Clara tucked the bed sheets around Rupert, catching up with them in the hallway. 

Clara noticed with worry how Gemma was dragging her feet and that her hand gripped the railing tightly as they walked downstairs. The woman looked exhausted, like when she had first arrived in the TARDIS, and Clara hoped the Doctor would let her get some rest.

He was always so attentive when it came to Gemma, but this whole nightmare and creatures hiding on the bed thing had her worried that he was going to take it too far in his search for answers.

Gemma slumped on one of the staircases as soon as they got back inside the TARDIS and rested her face in her hands as she with a half ear listened to Clara and the Doctor talk about what had just happened.

All the exhaustion and pain she had pushed away in the excitement of travelling in the TARDIS was crashing down on her and her thoughts were such as mess that she didn’t know how to act other than keep quiet. Gemma could feel tears form in her eyes, but wiped them away before anyone noticed.

“Bye, Gemma!” Clara called from the door as she was about to leave the TARDIS and Gemma had barely even noticed they had moved. She gave a weak smile in return, but remained in her seat.

“Take her to bed and let her rest, Doctor. Don’t go running around, looking for something that isn’t there,” Clara ordered the Time Lord quietly, pointing her finger at him, and he shot her an unimpressed look.

“Clara, don’t ever again tell me what to do when it comes to Gemma,” the Doctor warned just as quietly, staring her down, and their eyes met for a long moment before Clara stepped out of the TARDIS. She scoffed in irritation, when the door immediately slammed shut behind her and the blue box dematerialized.

She knew that lecturing the Doctor about Gemma’s well-being was generally a bad idea since it indicated that he wasn’t thinking about it himself, but Clara was willing to risk the rage of the Oncoming Storm if it in any way helped Gemma.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor walked over to Gemma, after haven taking off into the time vortex, and gently pulled at her hands to get her to her feet. When he bended his knees as if he was about to pick her up, Gemma quickly stopped him.

“Please don’t. I’ve been carried enough for today. Or yesterday, or whenever it was. I’m forty-three, I know how to walk.”

Gemma sounded more irritated than she meant to, but didn’t have the energy to correct herself, so she avoided the Doctor’s gaze and followed him out of the console room.

“Doctor, where are we going?” she asked after having turned right for the third time and the next moment the Time Lord stopped in front of a closed door. “What’s in there?”

“Your room,” the Doctor informed her with a gesture of his arm towards the door, telling her to open it. Gemma watched him for a moment before doing so and let out a small gasp as she stepped inside the room.

It was much larger than what she had expected, not that she had really thought much about it at all, and Gemma immediately recognized her own style of decorating, which made her wonder whether the TARDIS just knew or if she at some point was going to design it herself.

“Who did this?” Gemma questioned in wonder as she let her fingers glide over a wooden desk, which was stood by one of the walls. In one corner there was a vanity with a small stool made in the same material as the desk and, as far as she could tell, the wardrobe matched both.

“The TARDIS,” the Doctor told her as he watched her from the doorway, smiling at the way her eyes had lit up just the tiniest bit from seeing the room. “Well, she gets it from you. It changes every once in a while, but I’m not allowed in here very often, so I can’t tell you when.”

“What d’you mean ‘not allowed’? Is it something I’ve said?” Gemma frowned as she ended her inspection of the room and sat down on the queen-sized bed, which was covered by a blue bedspread.

“No, it’s the TARDIS. She hides it from me. This room relates to your timeline alone, so if something in here might reveal my future, she won’t show me the room.”

“But now that there’s nothing personal in here…”

“She won’t stop me,” the Doctor finished with a nod and then frowned, when he noticed the look on Gemma’s face.

“I have nothing with me,” Gemma realized as she looked down at herself and then the room, which, except for the furniture, was empty. “My whole life, everything I own, I’ve just left it behind.”

“As soon as you’ve rested, we can go get it. Anything you want, we’ll get it for you,” the Doctor told quickly as a single tear fell from her eye and he sat down beside her.

“Is this how it always gonna be? Crying and being scared?” Gemma asked and found it hard to speak for the lump in her throat.

“Oh no, there’s gonna be a lot of running as well. And fun, lots and lots of fun. Can’t forget about the fun.”

The Doctor’s repetition of the word ‘fun’ for some reason made Gemma giggle and she managed to take a deep calming breath as she wiped the tears off her face. She was a grown woman and she could handle this.

“Doctor, my regeneration…” Gemma started when she realized that the Doctor finally might have an answer to her question.

“I don’t know yet, Gemma, I’m sorry,” the Doctor replied with a shake of his head, but there was a flash of something in his eyes that made Gemma narrow her own.

“You promised you’d tell me,” she reminded him sternly, but this time he didn’t even blink as he met her gaze.

“I haven’t broken that promise yet.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“I’m the Doctor.”

“That line doesn’t work on me,” Gemma said with a roll of her eyes. The way he had said it so confidently made the words sound strangely powerful, like they could move mountains. And yet, it wasn’t enough for her. “Imagine if I just went around saying ‘I’m Gemma’ without offering any other explanation. People would think I was crazy.”

“Well…” the Doctor said, dragging out the word, and Gemma let out a long sigh.

“Spoilers?”

“Perhaps.”

The moment was interrupted as a loud yawn left Gemma and the Doctor rose from the bed, pulling her with him by her hands. She remained still as he removed the UNIT ID badge from around her neck – she hadn’t noticed she was still wearing it – and then pushed the white lab coat off her shoulders.

“Don’t you think it’s a little too early in our relationship for you to be undressing me?” Gemma joked as she tried to ignore how her skin tingled where the Doctor’s hands had brushed over her now bare arms.

The Doctor only lifted an eyebrow in reply and let her things fall to the floor without caring to hang it anywhere. Luckily, he then took a step back and Gemma stepped out of Donna’s ballerinas so she could crawl into her new bed, her dress still on.

“What are you up to now then?” she called after him as he was about to leave the room and the Doctor paused in the doorway to look at her.

“Gonna go check on something,” was all he told her and Gemma wondered if he was purposely keeping secrets from her. Maybe it was just something inconsequential she wouldn’t care about either way, but she very much doubted that was the case.

“Stay out of trouble,” Gemma ordered lightly, her words almost coming out as a question.

“Now, that is a promise I can’t keep,” the Doctor replied as he, to Gemma’s surprise, winked at her before closing the door behind him.

_He’s mad, completely mad._

Gemma sat in silence for a long moment, feeling slightly unnerved by the fact that she was suddenly alone in an unfamiliar room in the TARDIS in space. The Doctor was somewhere in the big ship, but he was practically a stranger to her.

Lying down on her back, she realized that the light was on, but she had barely even thought about getting up, when the room fell into the darkness. Her heart jumped in shock, but then the TARDIS hummed as if to reassure her and Gemma smiled to herself as she closed her eyes. A minute later she was fast asleep.

\------

The room gradually turned brighter as Gemma blinked into consciousness and she stretched her body languidly, noticing how the soreness in her limps had disappeared.

It took her a moment to orientate herself as she looked at the unfamiliar room she was in and then closed her eyes again, when she remembered where she was.

She wasn’t at home in her own apartment, but in the TARDIS with the Doctor. It felt more like a dream than anything else, but Gemma knew that this was her new reality. Taking a few deep breaths, she pushed away the melancholy that threatened to overwhelm her and got out of bed.

It wasn’t that Gemma didn’t want to travel with the Doctor, even though she didn’t seem to have a choice in the matter, but her whole world had been turned upside down, again, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it.

The only thing she could do was move forward, or whatever direction the time vortex decided to take her, and accept that this was her new life. The faster she did that, the faster she would get used to all of it, she hoped.

Thinking that she needed to take a shower, Gemma noticed a door that she was certain hadn’t been there when she went to sleep and carefully opened it to find a bathroom on the other side.

It was white-tiled and bright, but immediately made her feel at ease as she found the products she used at home standing in a row by the sink. Gemma had a feeling that at some point in time she had been the one to put them there.

Gemma took her time under the hot water before she stepped back into her room, wrapped in a towel, and opened the wardrobe. She was not entirely surprised to find it filled with clothes already.

“Thanks,” she told the TARDIS quietly, even though she felt a bit silly, and the ship hummed in reply.

It unnerved her a bit that she actually understood what it was telling her, but she knew that the TARDIS being inside her head was just another thing she had to get used to.

She quickly dressed herself in black jeans and a green knitted jumper before pulling on a pair of flat leather boots. She didn’t bother drying her hair and gathered in a quick side braid instead.

Feeling ready to find the Doctor, Gemma left her room, but paused in the hallway when she realized she couldn’t remember the way to the console room. She vaguely recalled turning right a few times, so Gemma started walking and turned left the first chance she got.

Two turns to the left later and Gemma found herself at the threshold of a large kitchen. She was certain they hadn’t walked past it on the way to her room, but stepped inside when she saw the Doctor standing by the stove.

“Feeling better?” he asked without turning around as he flipped a pancake on the frying pan and the smell made Gemma’s stomach growl loudly.

“I am, thank you,” Gemma replied politely, suddenly feeling awkward in the Doctor’s presence, and she stopped in the middle of the room, not sure what to do of herself.

“You should. You slept for twelve hours,” the Doctor informed her with a glance over his shoulder before he placed the pancake on top of a large stack and carried the plate over to the dining table.

“Twelve hours?” Gemma exclaimed in surprise as her eyes followed him, watching him sit down and pour himself a cup of tea without waiting for her.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept that long since UNIT was always calling her into work all hours of the day and her rare off-days were spent doing all the tasks she had neglected while being busy with work.

“Are you just gonna stand there?” the Doctor called to her, pulling her out of her own head, and Gemma hesitated for a moment before she joined him by the table, sitting down across from him.

“What happened to you?” Gemma asked when she immediately noticed the small bump by his hairline on the right side of his head.

“I’m bumped into the console. I can be a bit clumsy sometimes.”

“You’re lying.”

“Start eating and I might tell you what really happened,” the Doctor told her pointedly, when Gemma’s stomach growled again, and gestured towards the food sitting in front of them. There was way too much for two people to eat alone.

“I thought you didn’t do orders,” Gemma argued as she leaned back in her chair, her arms crossed in front of her demonstratively.

“It’s not an order if you never listen.”

“Fine,” Gemma snapped back at him as she grabbed a piece of toast and took a bite of it. “Now tell me.”

The Doctor didn’t seem to be in any hurry as he took a long sip of his tea, while Gemma chewed on her piece of bread. Despite her impatience, she kept quiet as she waited for the Doctor to talk.

“Clara and I travelled to the end of time.”

“What d’you do that for?” Gemma questioned with wide eyes, clearing her throat as she accidentally inhaled a couple of bread crumbs.

“I needed to know what the creature on top of the bed looked like,” the Doctor told as he took a pancake from the stack he had made and started burying it in sugar.

“The one you said we couldn’t look at,” Gemma said and raised her eyebrows in question to check if she had heard correctly. 

The Doctor nodded and she couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. He was like a cat with nine lives, at least, and one day curiosity would surely kill him.

“Then what happened?” Gemma asked as she took a careful sip of the hot tea, finding it was made exactly how she wanted it.

“A thing,” the Doctor replied vaguely, making her roll her eyes. One of these days they were going to get stuck up there.

“They usually do.”

“A strong wind knocked me out and I didn’t see anything,” the Doctor finally told her and Gemma narrowed her eyes at him. She wasn’t sure whether he was simplifying whatever had happened for her sake or to avoid the truth.

“I’m not sure I believe you.”

“Good,” the Doctor replied as if she hadn’t just doubted his integrity and then gestured at the food once more. “Now eat. We have things to see, planets to visit. We could go to Iemme, where the indigenous species all have eyes in the back of their head, so they’re always walking backwards.”

“Actually,” Gemma began slowly and almost hated herself for ruining the Doctor’s excitement, but this was something she really needed to do,” I would like to go home.”

“Home?”

“Not home-home!” Gemma quickly said as she didn’t want him to think she was leaving him like his younger self had thought when Donna had told him the same thing. “Just… could we go visit my parents?”

“Barb and Chesterton! Of course!” the Doctor exclaimed with a happy grin as soon he realized Gemma wasn’t going to leave him. Not that she really had an opportunity to do so since she always, eventually, was pulled back to the TARDIS. “It’s been a while since I popped by for a game of cards.”

“You play cards with my parents?” Gemma asked in disbelieve, wondering if he had ever visited her parents without her knowing.

“Until your father starts complaining that I’m cheating.”

“Well, are you?” Gemma inquired with a lifted eyebrow and could already imagine her father’s annoyance as he kept losing to the Doctor.

“How else am I supposed to win every time?” the Doctor argued, leaning on his elbows as he gestured with his hands, and Gemma tilted her head with an amused smile on her lips.

“You’re not?”

“That’s just silly, don’t you think?”

Instead of answering Gemma just sighed and went back to eating her breakfast. She wasn’t actually sure it was breakfast as she had lost all sense of time, but that was just another thing she had to get used to.

Twenty minutes later Gemma was full and the Doctor practically jumped from his chair, when she pushed her plate away. The rest of the meal had basically just been the Doctor recounting some of the adventures he had with her parents and Gemma either nodding or shaking her head in disbelieve.

She had heard the stories before, but they all sounded a lot different from the Doctor’s perspective. Some of the things her parents had always deemed too scary or violent to tell her, even as an adult, he happily told and Gemma was left to sit in stunned silence.

Gemma followed him out of the kitchen and back to the console room, worried that she would get lost if she didn’t keep up with his long strides.

“When do you wanna go?” the Doctor asked as he started pressing buttons and pulling at levers to get them to Gemma’s parents.

“As close to the day I left as possible. If UNIT’s already told them I’ve left I don’t want them getting worried.”

“Pull that towards you and then turn it to the right,” he told her, pointing at the round handle in front of her. Doing as she was told, Gemma pulled at the handle and then turned it right as it snapped back into the console.

The TARDIS shook slightly as they took off and Gemma grabbed the console to make sure she stayed on her feet. A familiar wheezing noise filled the space around them and Gemma looked up, for the first time noticing the three silver discs above her head spinning around the tube in the middle of the console.

She realized that she hadn’t properly looked at this version of the TARDIS yet as she had been too disorientated and exhausted, when she first arrived.

It was much different from the last one, but just as beautiful with bookshelves lined up by the walls on the walkway surrounding them and a golden light shining from inside the tube in the middle.

Steam was rising from underneath the floor and Gemma felt the TARDIS hum under the palm of her hands from where she was holding onto the console. She didn’t notice the Doctor standing right beside her until he spoke up.

“Do you like it?” the Doctor asked, staring at her with an expectant look in his eyes, and Gemma grinned.

“She’s beautiful.”

Gemma and the Doctor were looking at each other as the TARDIS landed and Gemma broke their eye contact, running to the door with her heart beating in excitement. She almost laughed when she stepped out of the TARDIS and found herself on the road her parents lived, in the middle of the day.

The Doctor wasn’t far behind her, but Gemma was already crossing the street, when he closed the door to the TARDIS. She paused for a moment outside her parents’ front door, waiting for the Doctor to catch up, and then stepped inside her childhood home.

“Mum? Dad?” Gemma called into the house and pulled off her shoes in the entrance hall, gesturing to the Doctor to do the same. She was mildly surprised that he actually followed her instructions.   

“We’re in here, Gem!” her mother yelled from the living room and Gemma practically skipped through the house to get to them.

It wasn’t that long since she had seen her parents last and she wasn’t exactly a child any longer, but with everything that had happened within the last twenty-four hours, or however long it had been, she felt a childish need to see them.

They were both in their late seventies, but stood up from their respective seats to greet her as soon as she stepped inside the living room. Her father gave her a peck on the cheek, while her mother opened her arms to give her daughter a hug.

Barbara let out a small gasp of air as Gemma wrapped her arms tightly around her mother’s waist and buried her face in the crook of her neck. Immediately sensing something was wrong, Barbara stroked her daughter’s hair in comfort and rocked her lightly from side to side.

“Gemma, darling, what’s wrong?”

“I’m just happy to see you.” Gemma said as she pulled back and sent her mother a watery smile. She could feel tears burn in her eyes, but blinked them away quickly.

“Who’s your friend?” her father asked, glancing at the Doctor, who was standing at the edge of the room and watching them all with a smile.

Gemma turned away from her mother, silencing the question she was about to ask, and walked over to the Time Lord. The whole situation suddenly felt awkward, as if she was introducing a new boyfriend, which was silly because he was definitely not her boyfriend and her parents had known the Doctor for much longer than she had.

“Don’t you recognize me?” the Doctor questioned with a large smile as he gestured towards himself with open arms and then made a quick spin. “It’s me, the Doctor!”

Gemma hid her eyes behind her hand as the Doctor finished introducing himself before she managed to get even a word in. She wasn’t quite sure how she would have broken the news, but this surely wasn’t the way to do it.

“The Doctor?” Barbara said and moved forward to stand beside her husband, glancing between Gemma and the Doctor with a frown.

“ _The_ Doctor?” Ian repeated with a baffled look at his daughter, who pressed her lips together and nodded. She was finding it hard to think of something to say. “But his face is all wrong.”

“My face? Have you looked yourself in the mirror lately?” the Doctor retorted, feeling offended, and the Scottish accent was heavy in his voice. “Yours is all wrinkly and old.”

“And he’s Scottish?” Ian questioned disbelievingly while he stared at the Doctor as if the Time Lord had suddenly grown an extra head.

“Oi! What’s wrong with being Scottish?” the Doctor fired back and Gemma could easily see how her father and the Doctor might have trouble getting along at times. Both in the future and in the stories she had been told about the adventures her parents had had with the Doctor.

“First of all, you’re not Scottish, you’re an alien, so stop being rude,” she told the Doctor with a stern look, telling him to be nice.

“Secondly,” Gemma continued as she looked at her parents, whose eyes shifted between her and the Doctor with great curiosity, ”yes, he is _the_ Doctor. The alien one with a time machine you travelled in all those years ago.”   

“But I don’t understand, Gem, what is he doing here, with you?” Barbara asked her daughter, who was now biting into her lower lip; unsure how she was going to explain what was happening to her.

“I think you might need to sit down,” she told her parents with a sigh and beckoned the Doctor to follow with her eyes as they sat down around the coffee table; her parents beside each other in a couch and herself in a large armchair, while the Doctor strolled around the room and picked up various books and pictures from shelves.

Gemma took a moment to collect her thoughts and then started explaining how she had met the Doctor for the first time, walked inside the TARDIS and had been transported to his future. She avoided telling her parents about all the life-threatening situations she had already been in.

The room went silent after Gemma finished speaking and she glanced at the Doctor, who had taken a seat in the armchair across from hers and had been surprisingly quiet during the whole thing.

“So that’s why we haven’t heard from you in a month. UNIT told us you were on a secret mission in France,” Barbara finally spoke, breaking the pregnant silence, and Gemma frowned in confusion.

“A month? But I’ve only just started travelling with the Doctor. It’s barely even been a day for me.”

“It’s the TARDIS navigation system. It can be a bit dicey sometimes,” the Doctor explained with a shrug as if it wasn’t that big of a deal and Gemma glared at him.

“You still haven’t fixed that, huh?” Ian scoffed and the Doctor turned his head to glower at him.

“You’re welcome to try if you want,” the Doctor retorted in annoyed tone, but sounded more like a petulant child than a millennia old Time Lord.

“How did you travel with both of them for so long without going crazy, mum?” Gemma asked Barbara after having rolled her eyes at the two men and her mother laughed quietly.

“Well, it wasn’t always easy. Susan being there helped a lot.”

The Doctor shifted in his seat at the mention of his granddaughter and Gemma shot him a worried look. Her parents had told her the story of how the Doctor had left Susan on Earth in the 22nd century, so she could stay with the man she loved and find a real home.

“Gemma, are you sure this is what you want? To travel with the Doctor?” her father questioned softly, drawing her attention away from the Doctor, and Gemma sent him a reassuring smile.

She knew his question didn’t have anything to do with the Doctor. Despite their differences Ian had always praised the Doctor for his bravery and intellect. But he also knew his daughter and this had never been something she wished for.

“Well, I don’t have much of a choice. But… yes, this is what I want. The little I have seen so far has been scary, but also wonderful. And I think it will be good for me. To find out who I am, why I am who I am,” Gemma told with a wistful smile and her eyes met the Doctor’s, maintaining the contact for a long moment before she looked away.

“You promise to take care of her, Doctor,” Ian spoke sternly with a finger pointed at the Doctor, and Gemma was reminded of how Donna’s grandfather had said something very similar.

“I can take care of myself, dad,” Gemma interjected with a sigh and sent her mother an exasperated look to which the older woman just smiled.

“She’s right, you know,” the Doctor agreed with a smile and a nod towards Gemma before suddenly turning serious. “But I promise that I’ll do everything in my power to never let any harm come to her.”

“Thank you,” Barbara said and squeezed her husband’s hand comfortingly, when she saw the worried look there was still in his blue eyes. “So, are the two of you hungry? I remember how we barely had time to eat sometimes.”

Gemma blinked in surprise at the sudden change of mood and then shook her head at her mother’s question.

“We’ve just had breakfast, actually.”

“Oh, I see. Some tea then? Gemma, will you help me?”

Barbara rose gracefully from her seat and walked out of the living room before Gemma could give an answer.

“You two, behave,” she told her father and the Doctor with a pointed finger before following her mother to the kitchen.

Barbara was already filling the kettle with water as she walked inside and Gemma found four cups in one of the cupboards without any prompting. Leaning against the kitchen counter, she then watched her mother place the kettle on the stove and turn it on.

“Mum?” Gemma asked tentatively, when the usually chatty woman remained silent. “Are you okay?”

“Darling, I believe I should be the one asking you that,” Barbara said as she turned to face her daughter with a questioning look and Gemma’s gaze fell as she tried to think of an answer.

“I don’t know. I want to be. I just… my whole life’s been turned upside down for the second time and I still don’t know why. And it just feels like I’ve lost control. At any given time I could be ripped apart and travel hundreds of years into the past or the future, and it all revolves around a man I’ve only ever heard stories about. But he knows me. He’s known me for centuries and I don’t know to handle that…”

Gemma’s voice trailed off as a single tear fell from the corner of her eye and she wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck, when she was pulled into her embrace. They stood in silence for a long moment, her mother stroking her hair, and only broke apart when the kettle whistled loudly.

“He cares for you greatly. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at you,” Barbara told her with a smile after she had turned off the stove, and she almost sounded amused. “The age difference is perhaps a bit much, but I’m sure it will all work out.”

“Mum!” Gemma exclaimed scandalized, when she realized what her mother was talking about, and her mouth fell open in shock.

“Grab the tray, will you?” Barbara said as she finished filling it, ignoring her daughter’s wide-eyed look, and left the kitchen. Gemma stared after her mother for a long moment until she pulled herself out of the shock with a shake of her head and followed her with the tray in hand.

Gemma and the Doctor were back in the TARDIS a couple of hours later, when Gemma decided it was time to leave after her father accused the Doctor of cheating in a game of Go Fish.

Knowing that he probably had, Gemma decided to spare everyone the argument and quickly said goodbye to her parents before pulling the Doctor with her out of the house.

The Doctor had offered her parents a visit to the TARDIS, but they had both declined, citing that their days in the TARDIS were over and they were too old to time travel anyway.

It had been nice seeing her parents and a small reminder that her old life wasn’t completely gone. It made it slightly easier to step inside the TARDIS again, despite the fact she might be pulled away soon. The Doctor couldn’t tell her when as she sometimes stayed for months and other times for hours.

Gemma felt the tell-tale tingling sensation in the tip of her fingers just a few seconds after having entered the TARDIS and grabbed a nearby railing as she briefly lost her balance.

“Doctor?” she called while staring down at her glowing hands and then looked up to find him standing in front of her.

“Just remember to breathe,” the Doctor told her softly, when he sensed her panic and Gemma took a trembling breath.

The golden dust swirled around her as she concentrated on pulling air into her lungs and her hands started shaking.  She had done it before, she knew she would be okay, but that didn’t make it any less scary.

“Do you know where I’m going?” Gemma managed to ask the Doctor, who had stepped away from the time vortex that had now enveloped her fully. Her voice sounded as if she was speaking from many kilometres away.

“My past.”

The Doctor’s words only just reached her before she vanished in a cloud of golden dust and the TARDIS fell dark once more.


	4. Last of Its Kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever experienced,” Gemma complained. 
> 
> “And that’s saying a lot, because one time I had to help Martha dissect a three feet memory worm after everyone kept forgetting their own names.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for The Beast Below - episode 02x5

The TARDIS was in flight when Gemma appeared inside the console room and she immediately lost her footing as it jostled her around. Falling backwards she landed in a chair and she quickly grabbed the edge of the seat.

“Gemma!” a voice called excitedly over the noise of the TARDIS and she looked up to find a young man grinning at her from the other side of the room. Quickly, he flicked a couple of switches and caught Gemma before she fell to the floor, when the TARDIS stopped shaking.

“Doctor?” she asked in confusion, when she looked into the green eyes of the bowtie-wearing man, who was holding her up.

His smile fell, when he realized she didn’t recognize him, and he carefully helped her back in the chair to give her some space. It didn’t take him long to notice how young she was. Her eyes were so much different from when he had last seen her, which was only a few minutes ago.

“Hello,” the Doctor spoke softly and smiled down at Gemma as her eyes flickered over his face and body. He was so different from the Doctor she had just left, but she didn’t doubt that it was really him.

“Who’s she?” another voice questioned from somewhere behind the Doctor and a young woman with bright red hair appeared beside him. Gemma’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, when she noticed the girl was in a nightgown.

“I’m Gemma,” she introduced herself, wincing at how hoarse her voice sounded, and gave up on shaking the girl’s hand as she felt like her arms were made of lead.

“No, but Gemma was just here and you’re not her,” the redhead objected with a deep frown and Gemma almost smiled, when she heard the Scottish accent. The familiarity of it was strangely comforting.

“She is. This is just a younger Gemma,” the Doctor explained quickly as he gestured with his hands, but Amy just crossed her arms in front of her.

“But how can she just disappear and now be here, looking like this?”

“Excuse me?” Gemma questioned in disbelieve, but the other woman looked genuinely confused and Gemma turned her eyes to the Doctor as well.

“I’ll explain later,” the Doctor said with a shake of his head and waved off the subject with his hand before turning his attention to Gemma. ”How early is this for you?”

“Very early,” Gemma told as she tried to stand up while her eyes took in the unfamiliar console room. The Doctor’s arm wrapped around her waist, when she stumbled forward. Her legs felt almost numb from the time jump.

She felt less dizzy and confused this time and the brief moment of pain that came with the jump had faded instantly, leaving her body sore but functional. What made her head spin a bit, though, was how different the TARDIS looked.

The blue, metallic look was gone and instead she was surrounded by a warm orange light. Everything about it felt oddly soft compared to the TARDIS she had just left.

The sharp edges were gone and the round shapes reminded Gemma of the insides of a dome. The console room seemed bigger as well and much more confusing. But it was beautiful nonetheless. It reminded her of the first time she had stepped inside the TARDIS.

“Never seen this face before then?” the Doctor asked as he let go of her so she could lean against the console. For a moment Gemma was too absorbed in looking at the TARDIS and it took her a few seconds to realize he was talking to her.

“No,” she replied sheepishly, feeling bad once again that he knew her so well while she hadn’t even seen all of his faces. The Doctor didn’t seem to care though, as he took a turn around himself with his arms spread out.

“What d’you think?” he asked cheekily as he stopped spinning and Gemma tilted her head as she looked him over once again.

“You look young,” she finally told him with a small shrug, feeling slightly awkward. There were plenty of other adjectives she could have used about him, like handsome, but young was the first that came to mind.

“Young? I’m nine-hundred and seven!” the Doctor exclaimed with a wide gesture of his arms before he came to stand beside her, leaning against the console with a pout on his lips.

“And you’re wearing a bowtie,” Gemma said with a pointed look at the neckwear, which made the Doctor reach up to correct it by pulling on either side.

“Bowties are cool.”

“And a tweed jacket and suspenders,” she continued with an amused smile and pushed the jacket to the side to reveal the dark red suspenders underneath.

“You were the one who chose it!” the Doctor argued as he pushed away from the console and started moving around it, pulling and pressing levers and buttons. Turning around, she followed him with her eyes and smiled when she thought of a response. 

“Maybe because I had already seen you wear it and I didn’t want to create a paradox?”

“Oh, she thinks she’s so clever when she does that,” the Doctor complained to Amy with a pointed finger, but the warmness in his gaze was enough to make Gemma break their eye contact.

“So, do you often pick up young women only dressed in their nightie?” Gemma whispered with a side glance at Amy, when the Doctor stood beside her again.

“Are you two done flirting?” Amy asked in an annoyed tone from her seat in a chair with her arms crossed in front of her.

Gemma’s eyes widened in embarrassment as she suddenly remembered her mother’s words and quickly moved away from the Doctor, who smiled as his eyes followed her.

“I didn’t catch your name,” Gemma told the other redhead with a tilt of her head as she stopped in front of her, and Amy smiled at her in greeting.

“Amy Pond.”

“Amy Pond,” Gemma repeated with a smile, testing out the name and immediately liking it. It sounded like a superhero name. She turned to look at the Doctor, who was reading something off a screen. “Amy Pond, Donna Noble. Do you look for people with amazing names or is it the red hair that attracts you?”

Gemma’s smile fell, when she saw a dark look cross the Doctor’s face. Her heart sunk as she realized something must have happened to Donna and it seemed to be in the Doctor’s recent past.

“Who’s Donna Noble?” Amy asked with a curious look at both Gemma and the Doctor, but was ignored as the Time Lord left the console.

“Come along, Pond,” the Doctor called as he opened the TARDIS doors, revealing outer space. Gemma and Amy shared a quick look before they both joined him.

“What are we doing exactly?” Gemma asked absentmindedly as she stared in wonder at the millions of stars shinning back at them from the dark. She knew the TARDIS could travel in both time _and_ space, but this was the first time she saw the space part of it.

“Proving to Amy that the TARDIS can travel in space,” the Doctor told as he looked between the two women, whose eyes were shinning bright in amazement.

It was obvious from the look on Gemma’s face that this was her first time travelling to space as well and the Doctor couldn’t help but smile softly at the way she was gaping at the sight in front of her.

“Wait, how long have you been travelling with her?”

“A few minutes.”

“Oh. That explains the nightie, I guess.”

“How do I know this isn’t just a trick?” Amy asked in a suspicious voice, even as she reached her hand out of the TARDIS as if to touch the space around them.

Gemma figured the Doctor had put some sort of air shell around the TARDIS that made it possible for them to breathe and perhaps even move outside the TARDIS.

“I’ll show you. Jump outside,” the Doctor told her casually and with a gesture of his head. Gemma looked at him in surprise, while Amy narrowed her eyes before lifting her chin in defiance.

“Fine,” Amy spoke as she carefully stepped towards the edge of the TARDIS and then took a deep breath before stepping over it. She let out a loud gasp as she started floating away from the TARDIS and the Doctor quickly grabbed her ankle.  

“What happens if you let go of her?” Gemma asked quietly, so Amy wouldn’t hear, and didn’t take her eyes of the young woman, who was laughing in delight.

“She’ll float away and die,” the Doctor answered just as quietly and laughed at Amy as she looked back at them.

“You didn’t think to tell her that before she jumped into outer space?”

“You’re no fun sometimes,” the Doctor muttered as he pulled on Amy’s ankle, ignoring how Gemma was rolling her eyes at him. “Come on, Pond.”

The Doctor caught her as he pulled her back inside the TARDIS and Amy wore a bright smile as she briefly hugged the Doctor.

“Now do you believe me?” the Doctor asked with a wide smile of his own and Gemma felt one spread on her lips as well. It was hard not to get pulled into Amy’s excitement.

“Okay, your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space!” Amy yelled at the stars and laughed as she leaned out of the TARDIS. A sudden thought made her inhale sharply. “What are we breathing?”

“I've extended the air shell. We're fine.”

“Doctor, why’s there a city in the middle of space?” Gemma asked curiously when she coincidentally looked down and noticed the buildings flying by beneath them.

“Now that's interesting,” the Doctor said excitedly as he knelt down to look at the giant spaceship with the Union Jack painted on its side.

“Twenty-ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves,” the Doctor told as he ran back to the console and started pulling levers.

Gemma had followed him over to the console, but turned her head when she heard the doors slam behind her. Her eyes widened when she saw that Amy was gone.

“Whole nations migrating to the stars,” the Doctor continued without realizing no one was listening as Gemma ran back to the doors, hearing Amy call for the Doctor outside.

Throwing the doors open she found Amy clinging with her hands to the outside of the TARDIS. Amy was breathing heavily in fear that she would float into outer space and Gemma quickly reached out for her hand.

“Isn't that amazing?” the Doctor called from the console room, only pausing when he didn’t get an answer. Not even from Gemma. Looking towards the doors, he found Gemma in the middle of pulling Amy back inside the TARDIS.

“Well, come on. I've found us a spaceship,” the Doctor told them with a bright smile as he ran over to them and pulled the two women away from the door by their hands.

Their gaze turned to a large, round screen when the Doctor pointed towards it. Outside, the city was now flying beside them instead of under them.  

“This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal,” the Doctor told them as Gemma and Amy marvelled at the sight.

“It’s amazing,” Gemma breathed and smiled at the Doctor as she tried not to think about how everyone she knew on Earth would now be dead. She knew it was a thought she had to get used to.

“That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home.”  

“Can we go out and see?” Amy asked excitedly, following the Doctor as he walked back to the console.

“Course we can. But first, there's a thing,” the Doctor replied with a lifted finger, making Amy frown.

“A thing?”

“An important thing. In fact, Thing One. We are observers only,” the Doctor told as he looked at Amy through a magnifying glass and Gemma was unable to hide the snort she let out at the thought. If anything, he was the exact opposite.

“That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets,” the Doctor continued after having narrowed his eyes at Gemma to keep her quiet.

She sent him an innocent smile in return before she walked over to look at whatever had caught the Doctor’s attention on the screen in front of him.  

“Ooh, that's interesting.”

Gemma frowned as she noticed a young girl, sitting on a bench and crying while everyone just walked past her. Her eyes met the Doctor’s as he grabbed her hand and silently pulled her with him out of the TARDIS; leaving Amy to talk to herself.  

“You’re making a habit of this,” Gemma told him with a sigh as they stepped into a large market place and walked through the crowd to find the girl on the screen.

“A habit of what?”

“Of disappearing without a word like you’re some sort of wizard.”

“A wizard? I could be a wizard. The Great Wizard.” The Doctor grinned at her over his shoulder, changing direction when he caught sight of the girl.

“I think I like the Doctor better,” Gemma said with a smile before pulling at the Doctor’s hand to stop him from approaching the girl. “Let me.”

Letting go of the Doctor’s hand, she carefully sat down beside the crying girl and sent her a comforting smile. The girl didn’t notice her at first, so Gemma gently placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly, when the girl looked up at her with wide eyes and tears trailing down her cheeks. Before Gemma could stop her the girl got up and ran way, bumping into the Doctor on the way.

“That didn’t go as well as I thought it would.” Gemma winced as she walked back to the Doctor, who looked down at her with a soft smile. She noticed him pocket something, but didn’t get to ask before he replied.

“We’ll find her again later,” the Doctor assured her before he turned and waved at the TARDIS, telling Amy to join them. “Let’s find out what’s wrong with this ship first.”

“Does something have to be wrong?” Gemma sighed as they walked back towards the TARDIS and met Amy just as she exited the blue box.

Not that she didn’t feel it as well. It was like a voice in the back of her mind telling her that there was something she was missing. But it would have been nice if just visiting a spaceship was all they were going to do that day. Especially since Gemma still felt sore and tired from her time jump.

Amy let out a startled yelp as she was almost hit by a bike and her eyes widened in shock, when she took in their surroundings. Gemma couldn’t help but find it all a bit overwhelming as well, but kept quiet as Amy had her own minor freak-out. 

“I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries.”

“Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one,” the Doctor complained as he took a step towards Amy and looked at her as if he was still trying to figure her out. Gemma was certain the same expression was on her own face every time she looked at him.

“Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?” the Doctor then said as he placed a hand on Amy’s back, pushing her away from the TARDIS, and blindly reached for Gemma’s hand.

She stared at it for a brief moment before taking it with a roll of her eyes. She still didn’t know why he insisted on doing it.

“What's wrong?” Amy asked in confusion and looked flustered by all the things going on around her.

“Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?” the Doctor urged the companion, who stared at everything with wide eyes.

Gemma was trying to do the same, but it was hard with so much noise around them. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed a cloaked figure following them and she squeezed the Doctor’s hand. His head turned towards her and he sent her a small nod as his eyes darted to the side, noticing the figure as well.   

“Is it the bicycles? Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles,” Amy suggested as she pointed at the bicycle passing her and Gemma let out a small laugh. 

“So is the girl in the nightie,” Gemma pointed out with a gesture towards Amy’s clothes and a horrified expression appeared on the girl’s face.

“Oh my God, I'm in my nightie.”

“Now, come on, look around you. Actually look,” the Doctor pressed as he pointed towards the glass ceiling high above them and they all came to a stop.   

“Life on a giant starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps,” the Doctor spoke in a rapid pace and Gemma’s eyes shifted to the things he mentioned.

“But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state,” he continued in a low voice and let go of Gemma’s hand as he ran over to a table and grabbed the glass of water standing on it. “Excuse me.”

“What are you doing?” the man sitting by the table asked as the Doctor placed the glass on the ground. They all watched the still water for a brief moment before the Doctor returned it to the table.

“Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish,” the Doctor told the couple at the table, tapping the side of his nose before re-joining Amy and Gemma. “Where was I?”

“An escaped fish? Really?” Gemma commented with a tilt of her head and the Doctor made a funny grimace at his own lie.

“Why did you just do that with the water?” Amy asked with a frown, apparently not minding the fish lie, and the Doctor shook his head distractedly.

“Don't know, ask Gemma. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track,” the Doctor said quickly and then continued with a snap of his fingers. “Now, police state. Do you see it yet?”

Gemma wasn’t sure what he meant by ‘ask Gemma’, but something was definitely bothering her. Something about the noise around them seemed wrong, like something important was missing. And the water, something was wrong with that as well.

“Where?” Amy questioned as she looked around for the so-called police state the Doctor kept talking about. Ahead of them sitting on a bench, Gemma noticed the crying girl from before and the Doctor pointed at her with another snap of his fingers.  

“There.”

Gemma glanced quickly over her shoulder as the Doctor pulled her with him towards the girl, and she saw the cloaked figure appear on the spot Amy had just left. She squeezed the Doctor’s hand in warning and he gave her a subtle nod. For some reason he didn’t intend to do anything about it for now.

“One little girl crying. So?” Amy asked as they sat down on a red bench across from the crying girl. Gemma wanted to go over and sit down beside her, but was afraid she would scare her away again. 

“Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that,” the Doctor explained quietly and watched the crying girl with a solemn expression on his face.  

“Are you a parent?” Amy questioned with an intrigued look and the Doctor froze for a brief moment, realizing he had revealed too much. Feeling Gemma shift a little closer to him managed to clear his mind.

“Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them are asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about,” the Doctor continued as if he hadn’t heard Amy’s question and Gemma followed his gaze as it momentarily rested on a booth by the wall.

Behind a glass case was a smiling plastic head and Gemma eyed it with suspicion, noticing how everyone seemed to avoid it. The golden plague on the booth read ‘Smiler’.

“Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state.”  

The crying girl got up as an elevator dinged behind her and Gemma’s hand instinctively grabbed the Doctor’s arm as she saw the Smiler turn its head to watch the girl leave.

The Doctor’s hand came to rest on top of hers as he sent her a questioning look and Gemma nodded towards the Smiler, which was now turning back to its original position.

“Where'd she go?” Amy asked in surprise, when she realized the girl had left and looked at Gemma and the Doctor in concern.

”Deck two oh seven. Apple Sesame block, dwelling fifty-four A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner.” the Doctor informed her casually and Gemma wondered how he knew all of that till he pulled a wallet out of his inner pocket. He wasn’t a wizard as much as a thief, apparently.

“Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket, when I accidentally bumped into her. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere,” the Doctor told Amy as he gave her the colourful wallet he had taken from the girl and gestured at the Smiler currently watching them.

“But they're just things,” Amy said with a confused frown and Gemma tried not to smile as she thought about what the Doctor had said about the Sontaran teleport.

_“People don’t question things. They just go ‘oh, it’s a thing’.”_

“They're clean. Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them,” the Doctor explained and Amy’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, when she saw that the Doctor was right. “Look. Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?”

“No, hang on. What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed,” Amy protested in an annoyed tone, already feeling slightly overwhelmed by being in space in the future. Now he wanted her to go play detective as well. Just because she sometimes dressed up as a policeman, didn’t mean she was one.  

Gemma wondered if he was going to send her out to investigate on her own as well. Considering how tired she felt from her jump, she didn’t think it was a good idea.

It was frustrating how only a few seconds could tire her so much, but according to Donna it would grow better over time. Hopeful that meant she wouldn’t have to sleep twelve hours every two hours or so.

“It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?” the Doctor mused and a staring contest ensued between Amy and him. Amy gave her answer when she broke the contact after a few seconds.

“Ha ha, gotcha! Meet us back here in half an hour,” the Doctor laughed and then looked down at his watch, which had the dial on the inside of his wrist.

“What are you gonna do?” Amy questioned in a voice that made her sound like moody child, looking between Gemma and the Doctor.

“What we always do,” the Doctor said, his tone of voice mocking the way Amy spoke, and rose from his seat. “Stay out of trouble.”

“Badly,” Gemma added with a pointed look at the Doctor.

He grinned as he glanced down at Gemma, who got up as well, and then jumped over the back of the bench instead of going around it like Gemma did. 

“So is this how it works, Doctor?” Amy called after them from the bench and they both turned to look at her. Gemma felt conflicted about just leaving Amy to herself, but she wouldn’t be much help to the other woman either way.

“You two never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying,” Amy stated with a sly smile as she had managed to figure out something new about the Doctor.

“Yes,” the Doctor replied with a smile of his own, feeling satisfied with Amy’s description of them.

“Be careful, Amy,” she told the companion as Amy turned her back to them and blindly waved at them before walking off.

“So where are you sending me?” she asked the Doctor as they turned their back on Amy and walked the opposite way. She was mostly just teasing, but the Doctor wore a serious expression as he grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him.

“You’re staying with me.”

“Oh, so where are we going?”

“We’re going to find out why we’re being watched and what’s wrong with the water,” the Doctor told her as he stopped walking to look around. “This way.”

Gemma followed as he led them into a small corridor and away from the market. She could no longer find the cloaked figure, which had previously followed them, but noticed how one of the Smilers turned in their direction as they passed it.

“Doctor,” Gemma spoke as they turned down another corridor when she suddenly thought of something, “how many times have you regenerated by now?”

“Ten times, well technically eleven, but that’s a spoiler, so forget I said anything,” the Doctor said and came to a sudden stop in the middle of the empty corridor.

Looking down Gemma found a hatch, which the Doctor knelt down to open. When it wouldn’t open, the Doctor found his sonic screwdriver in the inner pocket of his jacket and unlocked the hatch. Under it was a steel ladder, which lead them to another corridor.

The Doctor crawled down the ladder and landed in an empty corridor. Several relays hung on the walls and steam rose around him.

The Doctor was busying sonicing the wall, when Gemma reached the ground and she glanced around curiously, pausing when she noticed a glass of water in the middle of the corridor.

“Can’t be,” the Doctor muttered as he read the results on his screwdriver and then glanced at Gemma, who was staring at something on the floor.

“Doctor, the water,” Gemma said as she pointed at the glass and the Doctor knelt down in front of it with his chin touching the floor. “It’s the same as before, completely still. We’re on a moving spaceship, so how is the water still?”

Heels echoing through the corridor made both of them look up and Gemma took a small step back in shock, when a woman suddenly stood in front of them. Her brown curls framed a white mask, which hid her whole face and she was wearing a red cloak.

The Doctor grabbed Gemma’s hand as he jumped to his feet and the masked woman took a step towards them.

“The impossible truth in a glass of water. Not many people see it,” the woman spoke quietly and her voice sounded slightly distorted because of the mask. “But you do, don't you, Doctor?”

“You know me?” the Doctor asked with a tilt of his head as he carefully studied the woman in front of them, trying to figure out if she was friend or enemy.

“Keep your voice down,” the woman hissed as her eyes darted around the corridor. “They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass. Your lover already said it.”

“Then why don’t you ask her?” the Doctor questioned with a lifted eyebrow and squeezed Gemma’s hand to keep her quiet, when she opened her mouth to protest the identification as his lover.

“Don't waste time,” the woman told the Doctor as she moved even closer to them so they wouldn’t be heard. “At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?” 

“No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. As Gemma said, the water would move,” the Doctor finally replied and let go of Gemma’s hand to open the boxes on the wall behind them.

“So, I thought I'd take a look. It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected,” he continued as he showed them the disconnected wires. “Look. Look, they're dummies, see?”

“And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow,” the Doctor said as he moved to the opposite wall and knocked on it. “If I didn't know better, I'd say there was-”

“No engine at all,” the Doctor and the woman spoke at the same time and the Doctor paused for a moment to look at her.

“But that’s not possible. The ship, it’s travelling through space. We saw it.” Gemma frowned as she looked at the Doctor, who came back to stand beside her, and then at masked woman.

“The impossible truth. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly.”

“How?”

“I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope,” the woman pleaded with the Doctor and Gemma could see the desperation shine from her dark eyes.

“Your friend is safe. This will take you to her,” the woman then told them as she gave the Doctor a tracking device and Gemma felt a knot in her stomach form at the thought Amy being in trouble. “Now go, quickly!”

“Who are you? How do we find you again?” the Doctor yelled after the woman as she walked away from them, down the corridor. She stopped for a moment to answer, but didn’t turn around.

“I am Liz Ten, and I will find you.”

A loud noise above their heads made Gemma and the Doctor look up and the masked woman was gone as soon as it ended. The Doctor stared down the empty corridor and then looked at Gemma in surprise.

“There. Now you see how it feels when you do your disappearing act,” she told him with a pointed finger and then grabbed the tracking device from the Doctor; eager to find Amy quickly. “Come on, Amy’s this way.”

The Doctor smiled as he grabbed her hand and they ran down the corridor, following the map in Gemma’s hand. After a few turns and climbs they finally reached the dot that showed Amy’s location. Gemma was surprised to find Mandy, the young girl, sitting outside a closed door, which sprung open as they came closer.

Gemma could hear a desperate voice talking inside the room and felt frightened when she recognized Amy’s voice.

“Listen to me. This isn't a trick. This is for real,” Gemma heard Amy plead with someone and was surprised to find that it was a recording playing on the screens inside the room, while the real Amy watched with a terrified expression on her face.  

“Amy?” the Doctor questioned as they stepped inside the room and Gemma watched how tears ran down the cheeks of the Amy on the screen.

“You've got to find Gemma and the Doctor,” the recording pleaded, but they didn’t get to hear the rest of it as Amy turned it off.  

“What have you done?” the Doctor asked in a flat voice that made Gemma let go of his hand as she felt anger roll off of him. He sounded like the calm before the storm.

Amy didn’t answer as she stared at the turned off screen with a guilty expression and the Doctor simply glared at her as he stepped onto the chair Amy had sat in and scanned a lamp-looking device, which hung from the ceiling.

In the meantime, Gemma walked over to the Smiler by the wall, eyeing it with a wrinkle of her nose. She did not like those things.

“Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes.”  

“But why would I choose to forget?” Amy asked with her arms crossed in front of her and glanced down at the two buttons in front of her: Forget and Protest.

She was starting to feel cold in her nightie and the Doctor’s hidden anger suddenly made her feel very far away from home. At least Gemma didn’t seem angry with her, Amy thought, when the other woman sent her a comforting smile. 

“Because everyone does. Everyone chooses the Forget button,” Mandy told from outside the room and the Doctor walked over to her, bending down to her height.

“Did you?”

“I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years.”

“And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action.”

“How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?” Mandy asked the Doctor as he walked back to the panel and screen where the voters could choose to either protest or forget.  

“Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie,” the Doctor laughed as he pointed at the screen. “Won't play for me.”

“It played for me,” Amy frowned as she watched the Doctor fiddle with the computer and Gemma realized with a long sigh that Amy didn’t even know that the Doctor wasn’t human.

“Well, the difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human,” the Doctor told as if he hadn’t just revealed he was an alien and Amy looked at Gemma as if to see if he was telling the truth.

“Why not?” Amy asked, when Gemma nodded in confirmation, and moved to the Doctor’s side. “You look human.”

“No, you look Time Lord. We came first.”

“What about Gemma?” Amy then asked with a look at the other woman, who shook her head, but then paused when her eyes met the Doctor’s.  

“Not a Time Lord, but it wouldn’t work on her either.”

“What?” Gemma questioned in disbelieve and stepped forward to stand beside the Doctor. She was absolutely certain she was human. None of the tests UNIT had put her through had shown otherwise.

“Spoilers,” the Doctor told her quietly and Gemma was interrupted by Amy as she opened her mouth to protest. Her not being completely human wasn’t just something he could wave off with “spoilers”.

“So there are other Time Lords, yeah?”

“No. There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever,” the Doctor told Amy, who looked guilty for even asking.

The pain in his voice made Gemma’s heart ache and she grabbed his hand, making him smile briefly. She didn’t know what exactly had happened to the rest of the Time Lords as the files at UNIT only mentioned an awful war, which they knew little about. A war between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and the Doctor was the lone survivor.

“Because this is what we do, me and Gemma, every time, every day, every second. This,” the Doctor continued after a moment’s pause and took a step back from the computer. “Hold tight. We're bringing down the government.”

Gemma watched with wide eyes as the Doctor lifted his hand and then smashed it down on the Protest button, making the door shut close and the Smiler turn 180 degrees to show a snarling face.

The Doctor quickly pulled Gemma and Amy with him to a corner of the room and Gemma watched in quiet horror as the floor underneath opened up, revealing a long tube which seemingly led to nowhere.

“Say wheee!” the Doctor told them with a wide smile as he held their hands tightly in his, and Gemma and Amy both stared at him before letting out a scream as the three of them fell down the tube.

Gemma’s lungs were almost empty from screaming, when she finally landed on something large and squishy. The Doctor was already on his feet and quickly helped her up as Amy landed beside her.

They were drenched in something Gemma dreaded to think about the origin of and a foul smelled filled her nostrils as she removed some of the slime from her face.

“High speed air canon, lousy way to travel,” the Doctor informed them as he soniced their surroundings.

“Where the fuck are we?” Gemma asked and helped up Amy, who looked just as nauseated as Gemma felt.

“Language.”

“Oh, bite me,” Gemma muttered as she glanced around the dark room, which was only lit up by a dull red light.

“Maybe later,” the Doctor replied with a wink as he waded past her through the slime and garbage, and Gemma let out a high-pitched sound as she gaped at him. They were standing in what looked like a huge waste disposal and he was flirting with her?

“So six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave,” the Doctor thought out loud and Gemma made a face as he inhaled deeply to figure out where they had ended up.   

“It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!” Amy complained as she grabbed something off the floor and threw it through the air. Gemma watched in disbelieve as both Amy and the Doctor got on their knees and started sorting through the waste.  

“Yes, but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship.”

“The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed,” Amy said as she threw food over her shoulder to get to the floor, and Gemma tried hard to control her gag reflex when the head of a fish almost hit her.  

“But feeding what, though?” the Doctor asked as he picked up something and smelled it in an attempt to find out what the food was all for.  

“It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy,” Amy continued undeterred as her hands found the floor and she pressed against it.

A loud noise, sounding much like an animal, made Gemma freeze and the Doctor quickly stood up as he realized where they were.

“Doctor, please tell me it’s not what I think it is,” Gemma pleaded as she carefully made her way over to him, wincing every time the ‘floor’ bended underneath her feet.

“Er, it's not a floor, it's a…” the Doctor told hesitantly as he grabbed Gemma’s hand, hoping to keep her calm, and then turned to Amy as he put away his screwdriver. “So.”

“It's a what?” Amy asked as she rose to her feet as well, blissfully unaware of the situation they were now in.

She frowned when she saw the horrified look on Gemma’s face and then looked at the Doctor as he grabbed one of her hands.

“The next word is kind of a scary word. You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go ommm,” the Doctor instructed and hummed until Amy did the same, despite her confusion.  

“It’s a tongue!” Gemma exclaimed when her patience finally slipped and Amy froze in place as she stared at the Doctor. 

“A tongue?”

“A tongue. A great big tongue.” The Doctor laughed excitedly and Gemma moaned in complaint, when she realized he was enjoying it.

“This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth. We're in a mouth?” Amy yelled at the Doctor as she took a turn around herself and she finally understood the look on Gemma’s face.   

“Yes, yes, yes. But on the plus side, roomy,” the Doctor tried comforting her and smiled at Gemma, who just scowled back at him.

“Let’s admire the interior after we find a way out, shall we?” Gemma said as she let go of the Doctor’s hand and started moving around, ignoring the way her stomach turned and bile rose to her throat.   

“How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach,” the Doctor said as soniced the mouth and paused to admire the size of it. They all froze when a sound came from the back of the beast’s throat and some of the waste swashed around them. “Though not right now.”

“Doctor, how do we get out?” Amy asked in a desperate voice as she followed the Doctor and Gemma around, while trying not to slip.  

“Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes,” the Doctor said as he took a turn around himself and his voice trailed off as they all noticed the big pointy teeth, which were clamped together, “so the normal entrance is closed for business.”

“We could try, though,” Amy suggested as she took a step towards the teeth and Gemma yelped in surprise as the ‘floor’ suddenly started to vibrate underneath them.

“No, stop, don't move,” the Doctor told them as they all tried to stay on their feet, but quickly slipped on the moving tongue. ”Too late. It's started.”

“What has?” Gemma yelled at the Doctor, who was rolling around and trying to get up, while he turned on the screwdriver.

“Swallow reflex.”

“What are you doing?” Amy shouted as she got to her feet only to fall back down. Gemma had given up on standing and instead did her best to keep her face out of the waste.  

“I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors.”

“Why the hell would you do that?” Gemma cried out and realized the moment after what he was trying to do.

“Chemo-what?” Amy yelled at the same time and the tongue stopped vibrating long enough for them to get to their feet.

“The eject button.”

“How does a mouth have an eject button?”

“You’re gonna find out soon!” Gemma yelled as they turned around to find a wave of vomit come towards them.

“Right, then. This isn't going to be big on dignity,” the Doctor shouted as he reached up and corrected his bowtie, making Gemma glare at him.

“I hate you!” she yelled as the wave came closer and she felt the Doctor grab her hand.

“No, you don’t!” the Doctor shouted back at her and then grinned wildly before he turned his head to face the vomit. ”Geronimo!”

Gemma took a deep breath and closed her eyes just before the wave hit her and she felt how the impact lifted her off her feet just before she was knocked out.

“Gemma, love? Gem, wake up,” she heard a voice call as she slowly regained consciousness and she felt a hand carefully grab the back of her neck as she sat up with a pained groan.

Opening her eyes, Gemma found the Doctor crouching beside her and she took the hand he offered her to help her on her feet. His wet hair was swept back, away from his face, and chunks of something Gemma didn’t want to think about what was clung to his clothes.

“Ow,” she moaned as she rubbed the back of her head, feeling a throbbing pain radiate from the spot. Looking down herself, she noticed that she didn’t look much better than the Doctor as her clothes was completely drenched in vomit.

“Are you okay?” the Doctor asked as he placed a hand on each side of head and looked her over; his eyes flickering across her face.

“I’m covered in sick,” Gemma stated in a flat voice and tried not to think about what the Doctor wiped off her face as his thumb brushed across her cheek. “And I have a headache.”

“Don’t worry, there’s no sign of concussion or anything broken. And Amy’s fine too.”

Gemma followed the Doctor’s gaze over her shoulder and saw Amy lying on the ground, still unconscious. Moving away from the Doctor, she crouched down beside the girl and searched for any possible injuries she had sustained in the fall.

“She’ll be up in a minute or so,” the Doctor told her as he found his screwdriver in his pocket and started sonicing the door at the end of the tunnel they were in.

“This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever experienced,” Gemma complained as she stood up and shook her arms to get rid of some of the chunks on her clothes. “And that’s saying a lot, because one time I had to help Martha dissect a three feet memory worm after everyone kept forgetting their own names.”

“Three feet?” the Doctor asked curiously as he kept trying to open the door and Gemma didn’t notice the affectionate smile that had spread on his lips during her rambling.

“There was this psychologist in a town outside of Manchester, who was using it on his patients. Worked brilliantly until the patients started forgetting more than just their personal problems. Almost a hundred people have no idea who they are anymore.”

“Why did you kill it?” the Doctor questioned as he glanced at Gemma over his shoulder and she could hear the accusatory tone in his voice.   

“We didn’t. The psychologist tried to get rid of it, when he realized what was happening, but we managed to stop him before he destroyed the carcass. UNIT thought it being dead meant the neurological effects of touching it had disappeared, but suddenly there were five doctors running around, having no idea where they were. Martha was the only doctor left on call that day and she asked for my help. It was disgusting, but this is so much worse.”

“That reminds me, do I still work at UNIT? Cos I never gave them my resignation,” Gemma then said as she leaned against the wall beside the door, watching the Doctor work to open it. Nothing seemed to be happening.

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a groan as Amy finally woke up and spit on the floor.   

“You okay?” Gemma called as she walked over the other woman and helped her stand up. Amy’s long hair was wet and greasy, and her nightgown clung to her skin.

Gemma’s clothes stuck to her skin as well, but at least her hair seemed a little better off as it was gathered to the left in a side braid. She could still smell it though, and it was not a pleasant experience.

“Where are we?” Amy asked as she took in Gemma’s appearance and then looked down at herself. Her nose wrinkled as she noticed the smell as well.

“Overspill pipe, at a guess,” the Doctor answered as he continued sonicing the door.

“Oh, God, it stinks.”

“Yeah, that's not the pipe,” Gemma told with a grimace and watched as Amy smelled herself, gagging as several odours assaulted her senses.

“Oh, phew. Can we get out?”

“One door, one door switch, one condition,” the Doctor said as he turned away from the door to look at the two women and Gemma could hear the frustration in his voice. “We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?”

Amy gasped as a button reading ‘Forget’ suddenly lit up and Gemma took a turn around herself, hoping to somehow find another way out.

“That's the carrot,” the Doctor continued and Gemma startled when the tunnel was suddenly bathed in a red light and she noticed two Smilers watching them. “Ooh, here's the stick.”

“There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?” the Doctor asked the Smilers as they walked over to stand in front of them, but the Smilers just turned one-eighty degrees to frown at them.  

“No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?”

Once again the Smilers turned and this time they were snarling at them, like the one in the voting booth before they had been fed to the beast.

“Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?” the Doctor mocked the Smilers and Amy gasped in fear, when the booths suddenly opened and the Smilers turned out to be more than just a head.  

“You and your big mouth,” Gemma muttered as they started walking backwards and away from the robots, which were now coming towards them.

“You’re one to talk.”

“Doctor?” Amy called in a high-pitched voice, but pushed herself against the tunnel wall as a woman appeared behind them with a gun raised at the Smilers.  

Gemma and the Doctor pressed themselves against the opposite wall as the dark-skinned woman started firing her gun at the Smilers, which fell to the ground.

Gemma realized who the woman was as she turned around to smile at them. It was the masked woman they had met earlier, but now without her mask.

“Look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask,” the Doctor told the woman as she holstered her gun by her thigh, but was ignored as the woman stepped over to Amy.

“You must be Amy. Liz, Liz Ten.”

“Hi,” Amy greeted, still in shock over what had happened, and took the hand Liz offered her.

“Yuck,” Liz exclaimed as she quickly pulled her hand out of Amy’s slimy one. “Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick.”

“You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave,” Liz continued as she walked over to the girl, who had just stepped through the door the Doctor hadn’t managed to open.

“How did you find us?” Gemma asked with a frown and glanced around for any form of surveillance other than the Smilers.  

“Stuck my gizmo on you,” Liz told as she threw back the tracking device she had given them earlier to find Amy. Gemma had kept it in the back pocket of her jeans, but Liz had pickpocketed it from her. “Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?”

“You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it,” the Doctor replied as he studied her intently in an attempt to figure out who she was. Her unmasking hadn’t helped much.

“No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject,” Liz stated flatly and Gemma frowned as she tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

_Liz is Elizabeth, Ten is her last name. Or maybe it’s the number ten, so she’s the tenth? Elizabeth the Tenth, who is not a British subject._

“Oh,” Gemma breathed to herself and looked at Liz, who smiled as she noticed the wide-eyed look on Gemma’s face. None of the others seemed to have noticed Gemma’s realization.

“Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?” the Doctor asked Liz and glanced briefly at Gemma, when he saw Liz smiling at her. He sent her a curious look, when he noticed the surprised expression on her face.

“You're a bit hard to miss, love,” Liz smiled as her eyes glided over the Doctor. “Mysterious stranger, M.O. consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot, your lover by your side.”

Gemma felt a deep blush creep up her neck as both Liz and the Doctor glanced at her, and she crossed her arms in front of her.

“I’m not his lover,” Gemma objected with a shake of her head and caught the Doctor’s eyes as she waited for him to agree. But all he did was stare at her for a long moment before turning his gaze back to Liz.

“You are Gemma,” Liz replied with a sly smile and Gemma frowned in confusion over the way Liz was looking at her; as if she had done something naughty. “You don’t quite look as I imagined.”

“I don’t… I’m sorry, what?”  

“You and the Doctor, running through the galaxy. I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was.”

“Your family?” the Doctor questioned as they all ignored Gemma’s bafflement. He didn’t get an answer as the Smilers behind them suddenly started moving.

“They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move,” Liz urged as she turned on her heel to lead them out of there and the Doctor grabbed Gemma by the hand.

“You know who she is, don’t you?” the Doctor whispered to her as they quickly followed Liz out of the overspill pipe.

“I think so,” Gemma whispered back, but didn’t have time to tell him as Liz started speaking.

“The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy.”

Gemma looked at the Doctor in surprise as Liz mentioned the Virgin Queen, but he was busy staring at the queen in front of them as his eyes lit up in realization.

“Liz Ten!” the Doctor exclaimed as he pointed his fingers at her and then gaped at Gemma, who was lost in thought.

If the Doctor had, or had had, or would have some romantic, or sexual, relationship with Elizabeth I then why would anyone think Gemma was his lover?

“Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth,” Liz said before she suddenly spun around with her guns raised and yelled at them, “And down!”

They all quickly dropped to the ground as Liz started shooting and Gemma looked back to see to Smilers fall to their knees before their face met the floor.

“I'm the bloody Queen, mate,” Liz told them as she finished shooting the Smilers and pointed her guns at the roof. “Basically, I rule.”

Gemma couldn’t help but laugh as the Queen looked down at them with a smug expression and then holstered her guns. When the Smilers quickly started repairing themselves, they jumped off the floor and made their escape.

“So she’s the Queen? The Queen of England?” Amy asked in a low voice, staring at the woman in front of them with wonder, and Gemma smiled at the obvious excitement on Amy’s face.

“She is. And apparently the Doctor had an affair with Elizabeth the First,” Gemma replied and teasingly lifted an eyebrow at the Doctor, who blushed and looked at her with a surprisingly serious expression on his face.

“Gemma, I wouldn’t…” the Doctor’s voice trailed off and Gemma watched him frown as if he suddenly remembered something. “Never mind.”

The Doctor ignored Gemma’s questioning look as he opened a door to their left and led them through it. She could feel Amy watching them, but Gemma had no way of explaining the Doctor’s strange behaviour, so she ignored the girl’s staring. 

“There's a high-speed Vator through there,” Liz told as they made it into a new corridor and she closed the door behind them so the Smilers couldn’t follow.

In the meantime the Doctor had discovered the scorpion-like tentacles, which were beating against the metal bars that were entrapping them. Gemma took a small step back as one of the tentacles banged on the bars right in front of her.

“Oh, yeah. There's these things,” Liz noted as she joined them and looked at the Doctor, who soniced the tentacles. “Any ideas?”

“Doctor, I saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root,” Amy told as she stepped forward, while the Doctor read the results from his screwdriver. 

“Exactly like a root. It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship,” the Doctor explained as he carefully watched the tentacles and he didn’t seem bothered by their constants attempts to stab him.

“What, like an infestation?” Liz asked and a snarl appeared on her lips, when the Doctor gave a vague nod. Gemma could tell that he was thinking hard about something; probably figuring out what was really going on. “Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. Got to keep moving.”

Mandy followed the Queen, who left in long strides and with her red cloak bellowing after her like a cape. Amy was about to follow, when she noticed that Gemma and the Doctor hadn’t moved. The Doctor was staring at the tentacles, and Gemma at him. 

“Doctor? Gemma?” 

“Oh, Amy. We should never have come here,” the Doctor spoke quietly as he watched the tentacles with a sad look in his eyes.

Gemma couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking, but she knew it wasn’t anything good, and she grabbed his hand as they left the tentacles behind to follow Liz and Mandy.

“The beast, what is it?” Gemma asked the Doctor as they walked through the spaceship to get to the Queen’s quarters.

“Something big. Something very big.”

“How do we get rid of it?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“So we’re basically just improvising,” Gemma stated and let out a small sigh as the Doctor nodded absentmindedly.

There were still things that didn’t add up and Gemma’s thoughts immediately returned to the missing engine, when she saw the glasses of water littered across the floor in Liz’s room.

Liz offered each of them a towel and then sat down on her bed, wrapping her cloak around her. Gemma managed to wipe most of the sick off her clothes, and she undid her braid to dry her hair before gathering it in a ponytail to keep her still smelly hair out of her face. 

Amy and the Doctor dried themselves off as well and Gemma giggled at how the Doctor’s hair stood out to all sides after he had ruffled it with the towel. She couldn’t help herself as she reached out to fix it and did her best to ignore the Doctor’s intense stare as she calmed her fingers through his hair.

“There,” Gemma said with a smile as she finished and took a step back when she noticed their proximity. ”Now you once again have the hair of an idiot.”

“Oi! You love the hair.”

“Yeah, I kinda do,” Gemma mused with a tilt of her head and blushed when the Doctor pressed a kiss to her forehead before he turned his attention to the glasses on the floor.

“Why all the glasses?” he asked Liz as he carefully stepped in between them and there was a scowl on the Queen’s face as she answered.

“To remind me every single day that my government is up to something and it's my duty to find out what.”

“A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom,” the Doctor said as he picked up the white mask she had been wearing when they had first met her, and Gemma blinked in surprise when he held it against her face.

Carefully, she took it from him and pressed it against her face. It didn’t fit her round face and small nose, and Gemma realized it had to have been made specifically for the Queen’s face to stay on by itself the way it did. Gemma studied the mask as she removed it from her face and noticed how old it looked. Much older than its owner.

“Secrets are being kept from me,” Liz spoke angrily as she sat up straight and the Doctor took the mask from Gemma to look at it more closely. “I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you've achieved more in one afternoon.”

“How old were you when you came to the throne?”

“Forty. Why?” Liz told with a frown and Gemma’s eyebrows rose in surprise. The Queen didn’t look a day over thirty.

“What, you're fifty now? No way,” Amy exclaimed as she spun away from the mirror to look at the Queen. Her wet hair was now gathered at the back of her head with a hairpin she had borrowed from Liz. 

“Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps.”

“And you always wear this in public?” the Doctor asked as he sat down on the bed, glancing between the mask and its owner.  

“Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting.”

“Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face,” the Doctor said as he held the mask in front of Liz’s face and she sent him a weird look.

“Yeah? So what?”

“Oh, Liz. So everything,” the Doctor spoke as he leaned towards her, but he didn’t get to explain what he meant as a group of cloaked figures suddenly entered the room. Gemma recognized one of them as being the man who had followed them at the market.

“What are you doing? How dare you come in here?” Liz questioned angrily and the Doctor quickly rose from the bed, pushing Gemma behind him as she was standing closest to the intruders.

“Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now,” the man who had followed them told the Queen in a strangely monotone voice.

“Why would I do that?” Liz asked as she stood up and walked up to the man to glare at him defiantly. Gemma let out a small gasp in surprise, when the man’s head suddenly started turning and a snarling Smiler revealed itself. 

“How can they be Smilers?” Amy questioned with wide eyes and Gemma looked at the Doctor, who was staring at the Smiler with interest.  

“Half Smiler, half human,” the Doctor spoke wistfully and Gemma got the feeling he had figured out at least a part of the puzzle. His lack of excitement made an anxious knot form in her stomach.

“Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?” Liz questioned in a low, threatening voice as she stepped closer to the Smiler.

“The highest authority, ma'am,” a voice spoke from inside the cloak, while the Smiler’s face remained frozen.  

“I am the highest authority,” Liz growled at the Smiler.

“Yes, ma'am. You must go now, ma'am.”

“Where?”

“The Tower, ma'am.”

Gemma felt the knot in her stomach grow as the Smiler turned around and walked out of the room, expecting them to follow. Whatever the Tower was couldn’t be anything pleasant given the look on Liz’s face.

“Doctor, the mask. It’s more than ten years old, isn’t it?” Gemma asked quietly as they reluctantly made their way to the Tower and the Doctor smiled briefly before nodding. “How old is it?”

“Two hundred years.”

“Two hundred!” Gemma exclaimed loudly, but then quickly lowered her voice, when the others turned their heads to look at her. “Two hundred years? Then why does she think she’s only fifty? How do you forget something like that?”

“By pressing a button,” the Doctor replied in a dark tone that made Gemma look at him with worry and she fell back as his strides lengthened.

“What were you two whispering about?” Amy asked as she caught up to Gemma, who was watching the Doctor’s back with her lips pressed together in concern.

“Amy, if you had to vote again, do you think you would choose to forget?” Gemma asked instead of answering Amy’s question and a deep frown appeared on the younger woman’s forehead.

“No. I don’t know. Why?”

“Because I think the Queen has. Many times.”

Amy didn’t get a chance to ask what Gemma meant as they made it to their destination and they entered a wide room with cobblestoned walls. A familiar sound came from a round hole in the floor, which had been covered by a grate, and Amy looked down to see the beast’s tentacles bang against the cover.

“Doctor, where are we?”

“The lowest point of Starship UK. The dungeon,” the Doctor replied as he took a turn around himself and he watched from the corner of his eye as Gemma walked past him and towards a large electromagnetic pulse, which was shooting into a hole in the floor.  

Gemma frowned at the children walking past her in a line and tried to catch their attention with a small wave, but their eyes were fixed on the ground. In the background she could hear the Doctor asking about them.

“There's children down here. What's all that about?”

“Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast. For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky,” an elderly man replied, but Gemma only heard half of it as she had made it to the electric pulse.

Her stomach turned as she looked down and saw that it was an exposed brain, which was being continuously electrocuted. It was torture. They were torturing the beast.

“Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle,” the Doctor said as he came to stand beside Gemma and he placed a hand on top of hers, which clung to the railing. Her knuckles were white and all blood seemed to have drained from her face.

“What's that?” Liz asked as she looked down from the opposite side of the hole, and Mandy and Amy came to look at the brain as well.

“Well, like I say, it depends on the angle,” the Doctor replied as he looked up to glare at the Queen and anger was slowly seeping into his voice.

“It's either the exposed pain centre of the beast's brain and you’re electrocuting it, torturing it,” Gemma told before he could and her voice broke as she tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

She understood now. She understood too much and they should never have come.  

“Or?”

“Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button,” the Doctor sneered before he turned to Gemma and gently took her hands, placing them against his chest as he held them.

“It’s okay, Gem. Just breathe,” he told her in a calm voice and Gemma took one deep breath before looking back down at the beast with a shake of her head.

“No, it’s not. It’s horrible.”

“I don't understand,” Liz interrupted with a frown as she still didn’t understand what had Gemma so upset.  

“Don't you? Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine,” the Doctor explained as he let go of Gemma’s hands and moved around the torture device, unable to keep still. Realization spread on Liz and Amy’s faces as anger made his voice rise in volume.

“And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving,” the Doctor continued heatedly and Gemma’s breath caught in her throat, when a low moan came from underneath them.

“Tell you what. Normally, it's above the range of human hearing,” the Doctor said as he looked around and then ran to one of the holes, removing the grate which covered it so the tentacles were let loose in the room. “This is the sound none of you wanted to hear.”

Gemma covered her mouth with her hand to hold back a sob as the Doctor soniced the beast and they were suddenly able to hear its tortured screams.

“Stop it,” Liz begged after a few seconds and the Doctor turned off his sonic, making the room fall quiet. Except for the electric pulse, which was still torturing the beast.  

“Who did this?” she asked Hawthorne, the elderly man controlling the Tower, and glared at him with disgust filling her dark eyes.

“We act on instructions from the highest authority,” Hawthorne replied calmly and didn’t seem bothered by what he had just heard.  

“I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now,” Liz demanded in low voice, which rose to a shout, when Hawthorne didn’t move to follow her order. “I said now! Is anyone listening to me?”

“Liz,” the Doctor called as he found her mask in one of his bigger-on-the-inside pockets and showed it to her as Liz looked at him. “Your mask.”

“What about my mask?”

“Look at it,” the Doctor told her as he tossed it to her and then walked over to stand beside Gemma, who had briefly closed her eyes as she tried to get the tortured screams out of her head. “It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say.”

“Yeah? It's an antique. So?”

“Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign.”

“Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years.”

“The same ten years, over and over again,” Gemma spoke quietly and walked over to the computer she had seen when they entered room.

“Always leading you here,” the Doctor finished as he took Liz’s hand and followed Gemma. Two buttons were attached to the screen: Forget and Abdicate.  

“What have you done?” Liz asked as she turned to Hawthorne with a horrified expression on her face.

“Only what you have ordered. We work for you, ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us,” he told her with a sad smile before flicking a switch, which started a recording of Liz.

“If you are watching this. If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale,” the recording told them and Liz sat down on the chair in front of the screen as an animation of the Star Whale appeared on it.

“Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart.”

Gemma’s eyes turned from the screen to look at the Doctor, who watched the recording with a mournful expression on his face, and she carefully weaved her fingers through his as she took his hand. Their eyes met for a brief moment before they both turned them back to the screen.  

“The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales,” the younger Liz told them as her eyes filled with tears, and the older Liz closed her eyes as the recording continued.

Gemma felt her own heart break. Not only for the Star Whale, but also for the people of the Earth. For her home, which was gone, burned up. For Liz, who had had to make a terrible choice for the survival of her people.

“We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted,” the recording told without any ounce of judgment in her voice and their eyes all turned to said button.

“If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision,” the recording finished and the screen turned off, showing the grief-stricken look on the Queen’s face.

“I voted for this,” Amy spoke with a trembling voice and turned her head to look at Gemma and the Doctor. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you knew if we stayed here, we'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien,” the Doctor replied calmly, but Gemma felt his grip on her hand tighten as he angrily continued, “You took it upon yourself to save us from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what we need to know.”

“I don't even remember doing it,” Amy objected with a shake of her head and her voice turned desperate as the Doctor continued to glare at her.  

“You did it. That's what counts.”

“Doctor,” Gemma spoke quietly, when his rage became more evident and she saw the deep regret in Amy’s eyes.

After having seen Liz’s video she wasn’t so sure she would have chosen differently. And even if Amy had protested, Gemma had the feeling she wouldn’t have had the chance to tell the Doctor anything. Instead she would have been fed to the beast and possibly died before they could get to her.   

“I'm, I'm sorry,” Amy stammered as she looked between Gemma and the Doctor, who had ignored Gemma calling his name and instead let go of her hand.  

“Oh, I don't care. When we’re done here, you're going home,” the Doctor sneered at the companion before he turned his back on them and walked over the panel controlling the electric pulse.  

“You’re not going home, Amy,” Gemma assured the girl and squeezed her arm in comfort before following the Doctor. He barely looked at her as she came to stand beside him. “Will you stop being unreasonable? What would you have had her do, huh? If she had protested, she might have been dead now.”

“My TARDIS, my rules,” the Doctor growled at her and Gemma flinched away as he glared at her. For a moment his gaze softened, when he realized he had scared her, but the iciness returned when Amy spoke.

“Why? Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it,” Amy asked as she walked over to stand in front of them, on the other side of the panel. Frustration was clear in her voice and she shouted at the Doctor, when he didn’t look at her. “Doctor!”

“Yeah, I know. You're only human,” the Doctor replied with a sad smile and briefly glanced at her as he continued to adjust the settings on the pulse.

“What are you doing?” Liz questioned as she joined them, standing behind Amy, and Gemma could hear how all strength had left the Queen. She was just as heartbroken as Gemma was.

“The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it,” the Doctor explained quietly without looking at the three women watching him.

Gemma turned her eyes to the tentacles, which were still swinging around above the hole. For a moment her vision blurred with tears and she let one of them fall before blinking the rest away.

“That'll be like killing it,” Amy pointed out with a frown and the Doctor paused his work to look at her.  

“Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore.”

“There must be something we can do, some other way,” Liz spoke in a desperate tone and Gemma watched as the Doctor’s hands clenched into fists.

“Nobody talk to me,” he growled quietly as he stared down at the panel, and Gemma took a step back, when he looked up at Amy and Liz, and shouted at them. “Nobody human has anything to say to me today!”

Amy’s eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth to speak before quickly closing it again. She looked over at Gemma, who watched her with apologetic eyes and then walked away to sit by the wall beside Mandy, while the Doctor worked.

“What?” the Doctor barked at Gemma, when he felt her eyes on him, and he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

“Since I’m at least partly human, you don’t want to hear what I have to say,” Gemma told as she crossed her arms in front of her and turned her head away. She understood why the Doctor had acted as he did, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

His yelling had also reminded her of his revelation about her questionable status as a human and the feeling that he was lying to her had crept back into her mind.

What if the part of her that wasn’t human was the reason for her ability to regenerate? Which meant that his future, and possibly past, self had lied to her, when he had told he didn’t know.

“Tell me,” the Doctor sighed tiredly and paused his work to look at her until his eyes found hers. He hadn’t meant to hurt her and while it was easy to forget, he knew how vulnerable she could be this early in her timeline.

Not only were the time jumps stealing away her energy, but she had only just been thrown into his world and reluctantly so. He was practically a stranger to her and her own uncertainty about what and who she was only made everything more overwhelming. And he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t let it go until she got an answer. An answer he couldn’t give her yet.

“You didn’t have to be so cruel to Amy,” Gemma finally said as their eyes met and her arms dropped to her sides as he came to stand in front of her.

“What they’re doing to this creature is cruel. What _I’m_ about to do to this creature is cruel,” the Doctor told her in a low voice, but Gemma didn’t look away despite the rage burning in his eyes.

“What they’re doing is cruel, but what you’re doing is mercy. And what is happening now is not Amy’s fault.”

“I never said it was,” the Doctor objected in an annoyed tone as he took a step closer to her, bending his neck to maintain their eye contact.

“Then stop using the word ‘human’ as if it disgusts you. Stop blaming Amy, a child, for wanting to spare you the pain you’re going through right now,” Gemma demanded calmly and leaned in as she pointed a finger at his chest.

“That wasn’t her choice to make,” the Doctor spoke through gritted teeth and Gemma could feel his breath fan over her skin as he exhaled slowly so he wouldn’t start yelling again.

“And if I had made that choice? Because honestly, I don’t know what I would have done. Would you’ve sent me home as well or are you just stuck with me?”

They stared at each other for a long moment and the Doctor opened his mouth, only to close it again. When Gemma realized he wasn’t going to say anything, she turned away with a sigh and let the Doctor return to his work.

She could feel his eyes on her for several seconds before he finally turned away as well and she watched from the corner of her eye as he started fiddling with the wires and buttons on the control panel.

Gemma closed her eyes as she tried to push away her feelings of insecurity over the Doctor’s silence. Maybe he really would have taken her home if he could, if he knew she wouldn’t just appear at some other point in his life. Maybe she didn’t belong by the Doctor’s side as his younger self had tried to convince her she did.

Opening her eyes, Gemma took a stuttering breath and glanced at Amy, who was still sitting by the wall with Mandy. A young boy walked into the room and Mandy suddenly sprung to her feet as she recognized him.

“Timmy! You made it, you're okay! It's me, Mandy,” she told the young boy, who stared at her blankly and then took a frightened step back, when he saw a tentacle looming over Mandy’s head.

Gemma opened her mouth to yell at Mandy to get away from the tentacle, but paused in the middle of a step towards the children, when the tentacle carefully tapped the girl on the shoulder and then remained still as it let Mandy pet it.

Gemma glanced over her shoulder at the Doctor in shock, but saw that he hadn’t noticed anything. When she turned her head back to look at the children, she noticed that Amy was staring at them as well, and their eyes met as they both realized the same thing.

“The children screamed and it came. The last of its kind,” Gemma thought out loud with a growing smile and she followed Amy’s gaze to the Doctor, who looked up when he heard her speak.

“What did you say?” he asked with a frown as his hand paused on a button, but Gemma ignored him as she caught Amy’s gaze and gestured with her head towards the Queen. Amy’s eyes widened in understanding and Gemma moved forward to stop the Doctor as Amy grabbed Liz’s hand.

“Doctor, you need to stop. The Star Whale, it won’t eat the children!” Gemma exclaimed with a large grin on her face and pushed him away from the control panel.

“Sorry, Your Majesty. Going to need a hand,” Amy told Liz, who didn’t have time to object before Amy slammed her hand down on the Abdicate button.

“Amy, no! No!” the Doctor yelled as he ran over to stop her, but it was too late and a loud roar came from beneath them as the ship shook violently for a few seconds.

Gemma let go of the railing she had been holding onto and ran over to Amy, pulling her into a tight hug.  

“Gemma, Amy, what have you done?” the Doctor questioned with a horrified expression on his face as he watched the two women embrace each other. 

“Nothing at all. Am I right?” Amy said as she pulled away from Gemma and they both looked towards Hawthorne, who was staring at his screen in bewilderment.   

“We've increased speed.”

“That’s what happens when you stop torturing the pilot,” Gemma told the man with a roll of her eyes and then laughed as she felt relief flood her. Turning towards the Doctor, she found him gaping at them and she grinned happily.

“It's still here. I don't understand,” Liz spoke in confusion and looked down at the exposed pain centre of the beast’s brain, which was no longer being electrocuted.  

“The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry,” Amy explained as she walked over to the Queen and stared down at the brain as well.

“What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race was dead and you had no future. What couldn't you do then?” Amy continued as she smiled at Gemma and then turned her eyes to the Doctor. “If you were that old, that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.”

The Doctor still wore a shocked expression on his face as he listened to her words, and Gemma turned her head to look at the Queen, when he remained silent.

“Now, you lot. No more feeding the Star Whale with people and all of the children go back to their families. And remove the Smilers and Winders and what-not. They’re creeping out everyone,” Gemma told the Queen and Hawthorne in a stern voice and while they both nodded in agreement, they were also smiling at her.

“Doctor?” Amy called after the Time Lord as he silently left the room and Gemma held up a hand, stopping Amy from following him.

“Just give us a minute or two,” Gemma requested before she left the others behind and went after the Doctor.

She wasn’t far behind him and found him in a wide, open room, standing in front of a large window panel. Under them lay the city they had seen from the TARDIS with buildings and skyscrapers, and the sky were lit up by millions and millions of stars.

None of them spoke as Gemma came to stand beside him and for a long moment they just watched the city in contemplative silence.

“You were right,” the Doctor said as he looked down at her with a solemn expression on his face and Gemma couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m just happy we saved the Star Whale _and_ everyone on board as well. It’s a bit a rush, really. Saving people, aliens.” Gemma grinned as she looked down at the city, but then turned serious as she looked back at the Doctor. “And you. The Doctor, the kind and old Time Lord, who can’t bear to watch children cry.”

“I meant Amy, you were right about Amy,” the Doctor told her and the corner of his mouth had curved into half a smile as he listened to her speak.   

“Does that mean you won’t be taking her home?” Gemma asked with a tilt of her head and turned her body to face the Doctor fully as he did the same.

“Amy can stay.” The Doctor smiled down at her and watched her intently as her eyes dropped to the floor.

“Too bad that you’re still stuck with me, though.” Gemma laughed, but fell quiet when she looked up to see the Doctor staring at her with a regretful expression on his face.

“Gemma, my sweet Gemma,” the Doctor spoke as he took a step towards her and gently rested his hands on her cheeks, ”I am definitely not stuck with you. _You_ are suck with _me_.”

“I really am, aren’t I?” Gemma grinned teasingly and felt her heart skip a beat as the Doctor smiled at her. Her cheeks grew hot underneath his touch and a strange tingling in her body made her look down at her hands.

“Oh,” she breathed when she saw the golden dust that swirled around them, and she looked up at the Doctor, who pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before stepping back. “I really hate this part.”

“It’ll get better, I promise you. Just breathe,” the Doctor told her in a reassuring tone and Gemma inhaled slowly before letting out a shaky breath.

“Say goodbye to Amy for me,” Gemma called as she felt herself being pulled away and as she turned her head the last thing she saw was Amy running towards them. “See you soon.”

“Doctor?” Amy yelled across the wide space of the room and came to a stop on the spot Gemma had just disappeared from. “What happened? Where did she go?”

“To the Moon.”


	5. Doctor Jones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Doctor?” Gemma called. “The rain, it’s like the gravity outside has changed.”
> 
> “Now we’re getting somewhere!” the Doctor exclaimed.
> 
> “Literally or?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for Smith and Jones - episode 01x3

The Doctor jumped from the pilot’s seat, when a golden tornado of dust suddenly appeared inside the TARDIS and left behind a red-haired woman before disintegrating. He caught Gemma just as her knees gave in and helped her to the seat he had just vacated.

It had been a month since he had last seen her and the Doctor smiled as he waited for her to recover from the worst of her dizziness. She looked young, he quickly noticed, very young.

“Ow,” Gemma moaned as she rubbed the back of her head where a dull pain had emerged.

She had almost forgotten about it in the excitement over saving the beast and the UK spaceship, but the time jump now seemed to have concentrated a headache in that exact spot. 

“What’s wrong?” the Doctor asked in concern and carefully grabbed her head with both hands to bend it forward so he could examine her injury. As he brushed his fingers over her hair, he noticed a bit of swelling, but nothing serious.

“Long story, spoilers most of it, but I kinda fell and hit my head,” Gemma explained as the Doctor let go of her and she offered him a smile as he crouched down in front of her. “Hello.”

It was Pretty Boy, as his future-self almost bitterly had named him, and he was wearing the same blue suit as the last, and first, time she had seen him.

“Hello,” the Doctor replied with a grin, but it turned into a frown when Gemma yawned loudly. “When did you last sleep?”

He knew how draining the time jumps were for her this early in her timeline, and also knew she rarely got any sleep unless he dragged her to bed. Her time at UNIT had taught her to work through sleep deprivation and travelling with him hadn’t made it any better. Worse, if anything.

“Er, a few hours ago, I think? But I’ve jumped twice since then and everything is still just… too much,” Gemma told with a sigh and glanced around the TARDIS to find that the console room was the same as when she had first stepped inside the ship.

“Where’s Donna?” she asked without thinking, when she noticed the Doctor was alone and she knew she had made a mistake, when the Doctor frowned in confusion.

“Donna? The bride on Christmas Eve, that Donna?”

“Spoilers?” Gemma replied uncertainly and pressed her lips together as she tried to avoid his gaze. “You’re alone then?”

“Well, I got you, haven’t I?” The Doctor smiled as he jumped to his feet and then turned his head searchingly as he wrinkled his nose. “What is that smell?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Gemma grimaced as she sniffed her own clothes, which was still covered in sick despite being almost completely dry. The towels Liz had given them hadn’t helped that much. “I’m covered in sick.” 

“What d’you do that for?”

“Oh please, we both know that you did this,” Gemma said with a roll of her eyes, but smiled when he sent her an apologetic look. “It’s fine. I just really need a shower.”

She winced as she slowly got up from the chair she was sitting in, but was happy to find out that her legs could still carry her despite the soreness in her body. Hopefully, that would fade soon, and quicker the more she got used to the jumps.

“And some sleep,” the Doctor told her in a stern voice as he placed a hand on her lower back and led her out of the console room. “Are you hungry?”

“Doctor, I’m a grown woman and I don’t need you to cuddle me.” Gemma sighed as they walked through the maze of corridors to get to her room. “But now that you ask, yes, I am a bit hungry. But I can’t eat anything as long as I smell like this.”

“Right. Take a shower, get some sleep and I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” the Doctor said as they stopped outside her door and Gemma paused with her hand on the handle.

“I don’t know where they kitchen is.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll find you.”

“Of course it will.” Gemma smiled and she remembered how it had done so the last time as well. A thought hit her as she stepped inside her room and she turned around to look at the Doctor, who was still watching her. “Don’t bump your head in the meantime, okay?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you’re you,” was all Gemma said before she sent him one last smile and closed the door.

\---------------

A few hours later Gemma had taken a long shower, managed to get some sleep and was walking through the corridors to find the kitchen. It didn’t take her long and she paused in the doorway to watch the Doctor, who was sat in a chair with his feet on the dinner table, reading what looked like the last Harry Potter novel.

“I cried at the end,” Gemma told with a nod towards the book as she walked into the kitchen and sat down in front of him.

“No spoilers,” the Doctor warned as he looked at her over the rim of his glasses and Gemma lifted her eyebrows in surprise.

“Are you telling me that even though you can travel in time, you haven’t yet finished the last Harry Potter?”

“I’ve been busy!” the Doctor argued as he lifted his feet off the table, closed the book and removed his glasses. Gemma turned in her seat to watch him as he got off his chair and opened the fridge.

“I resent that! One is never too busy for Harry Potter,” Gemma said as she reached across the table and grabbed the book, turning it in her hands with a frown. “Is this mine?”

“Yup,” the Doctor replied with a popping sound and Gemma blinked in surprised when a bowl and spoon was placed in front of her, followed by a bottle of milk and a box of Cheerios.

“How did you…” Gemma’s voice trailed off as she stared at the cereal and then lifted her eyes to send the Doctor a questioning look as he sat down across from her.

She had been craving it ever since she woke up from her nap, but had no idea how the Doctor knew that. It wasn’t something grown-ups typically ate, and especially not as dinner as she sometimes would after a long day at work. 

The Doctor only winked in response and Gemma watched him for a moment longer before she grabbed the box of Cheerios and poured them into her bowl.

“So, where, or when, are we going today?” Gemma asked as she filled the bowl with milk and looked up at the Doctor, who was watching her with an amused smile.

“Actually, we’re checking into a hospital.”

“We’re checking in… Sorry, what?” Gemma questioned with a shake of her head, not sure she had heard him right. What were they going to do at a hospital?

“I noticed these plasma coils around the Royal Hope Hospital, been building up for a couple of days, and I think something is going on inside the hospital,” the Doctor told her with a hint of excitement in his voice, but frowned when he noticed Gemma’s eyes widen at the name of the hospital. “What?”

“Nothing. I just… I have friend who worked there. Or works there,” Gemma said with a waving off gesture of her hand. “What year are we in?” 

“2007.”

Gemma only nodded in response, but felt a mix of excitement and concern as she realized Martha was still working at the hospital at this point in time. Which meant the young soon-to-be doctor was probably going to meet the Doctor for the first time very soon, but she would also somehow be in danger.

Martha had never told her exactly how she had met the Doctor, so Gemma didn’t know what was actually going to happen. She had a couple of theories, though; cases she had worked on with UNIT. But she was almost certain she couldn’t tell the Doctor any of them without changing the timeline.

“One of us is gonna pretend to be sick then?” Gemma asked as she finished chewing her first spoonful of Cheerios and the Doctor nodded.

“I’m gonna experience severe abdominal pains and you’re gonna take me to the hospital.”

“Sounds uncomfortable. And who am I gonna be? Your sister?” Gemma asked with a tilt of her head and then couldn’t help but frown at the thought of playing the Doctor’s sister. It felt wrong for some reason. And they looked nothing alike.

“My wife,” the Doctor grinned after making a face at her suggestion as well and Gemma lifted her eyebrows in surprise.

“Should’ve put a ring on it, darling,” Gemma teased as she pointed at her bare finger.

Calling him darling had been a slip of her tongue, since it was a name she usually only used with boyfriends or close friends. The Doctor was neither. Gemma unnoticeably shook her head as her mother’s words rang in her head. She was not going to get romantically involved with the Doctor.

_Do Time Lords even date?_

“And I’m not putting on a wedding ring!” Gemma added with a pointed finger, when the Doctor opened his mouth to speak, and he immediately closed it. “If we’re gonna pretend to be a couple, we’ll just have to live with the shame of being unmarried.”

“The shame? Didn’t you grow up in the seventies?” the Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow and smiled at her teasingly.

“Are you calling me old, Doctor?”

“I would never!” the Doctor exclaimed dramatically and Gemma rolled her eyes before laughing at him.

“We’re going undercover then. Does that happen often?”

“Spoilers.”

“Of course.” Gemma sighed, but for once didn’t feel herself grow annoyed. Maybe she really was getting used to the whole random time jumping thing. “Well, just let me finish eating and then I’ll get some shoes.”

“You’re not wearing shoes?” the Doctor asked with a frown and Gemma shook her head as she lifted her right foot into the air.

She was wearing black pantyhose underneath her knee-length navy blue dress, so didn’t mind it when the dress rode up her thighs at the movement. The dress was tight, but with long sleeves and a conservative neckline, so it felt appropriate enough to wear in a hospital.

“Speaking of shoes, I would love if we could stop by my apartment so I can pick up some of my stuff. I know I probably bought the clothes hanging in the closet here, but I kinda miss my own.”

“But first you eat, then the hospital and then your apartment,” the Doctor told as he pointed at what was left of her cereal and Gemma smiled at she picked up another spoonful.

“Deal.”

\---------

An hour, and a lot of over-acting by the Doctor, later they were sitting in the orthopaedic ward of the Royal Hope Hospital. The Doctor had been given a striped pyjamas and Gemma had laughed at the sight.

So far it hadn’t been difficult acting like the worried girlfriend, although she had paused for a brief moment, when a nurse had asked for her name. Gemma Chesterton was legally dead, killed in a hit and run seven years ago, so Gemma had given the name Juliet Chesterton. At least it was better than the Doctor’s name.

“John Smith, really? That’s the name you’re going with?” Gemma asked after Doctor Stoker, the attending physician, had left them and the Doctor frowned in response.

Gemma remembered seeing the alias in the Doctor’s UNIT file, but thought he might have come up with something more creative since then.

“What’s wrong with that? John Smith is a good name.”

“Yeah, if you’re in a Disney movie and in love with Pocahontas.”

“We should go meet her sometime. I bet she’s brilliant” The Doctor grinned and the idea made his eyes light up in excitement.

Gemma rolled her eyes as she pulled her hand from his and sat down in the chair beside the hospital bed. The handholding had only been for show while Doctor Stoker was there and Gemma’s hand was starting to feel a bit clammy.

“Yes, and I’m sure she’ll greet us with open arms. When have the British ever done any harm to the Natives?” Gemma asked sarcastically and the Doctor’s smile fell as he realized the problematic parts of his idea.

“So, what now?” she continued as she glanced around the almost empty ward and shifted in her seat to find a more comfortable position. They had arrived at the hospital in the late hours of the evening and the sun had only just set. It would be hours until a doctor came to check up on them again.

“We wait,” the Doctor told and Gemma could sense how he was already starting to get bored.

She tried to hide a yawn behind her hand, but could feel the Doctor’s eyes on her. Her nap in the TARDIS had helped, but the prospect of sitting still for hours made her tired once again.

“Come on,” the Doctor said as he scooted to the side of the hospital bed and patted the narrow space beside him. Gemma frowned as she watched him move around and her eyes widened, when she realized what he wanted her to do.

“Gem, you need more sleep. It’s a bit tight, but we’ll fit.”          

“Doctor, I’m fine. I can just-“ Gemma protested, but she was, much to her chagrin, interrupted by her own yawn. Now that she had started, she didn’t seem able to stop. “Urgh, fine. Just a couple hours, though, and then you wake me up.”

The Doctor nodded as Gemma let out a sigh and eyed the bed for a moment longer before climbing under the covers. It was awkward at first as she tried to both put some space between the Doctor and her while also finding a comfortable position without the risk of falling out of the bed.

The Doctor remained quiet while she shifted around and in the end Gemma just gave up and laid her head on his shoulder while her arm came to rest over his chest.

She felt her pulse elevate as she did so, but it was the only comfortable position she could find and the Doctor’s arm around her shoulders made certain she wouldn’t fall.

For several minutes Gemma listened to the Doctor’s double heartbeat as she waited for her own to return to normal, and it wasn’t long before she was fast asleep.

Gemma was awoken by the rising sun hours later and she blinked against the light as she slowly sat up. The arm she had been sleeping on was a bit numb, but she could feel how the soreness in her body had fully disappeared as she stretched her arms.

“Good morning,” the Doctor chirped from beside her and Gemma jumped in surprise as she had somehow forgotten he had been her pillow while she slept. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah. Thanks for letting me use you as a pillow.” Gemma smiled as she stood up and pulled down her dress, which had folded at the top of thighs.

“Any time,” the Doctor replied with a cheeky smile and Gemma looked away as she felt a blush colour her cheeks.

“Er, I’m gonna go find a bathroom,” she told the Doctor as her hands fiddled with the locks of hair that had fallen out of the high bun she had gathered them in.

Gemma left the room without another word and found a bathroom down the hall, which she quickly slipped into. She frowned as she looked in the mirror and saw that her right cheek was red from having been pressed against the Doctor’s shoulder, and her mascara was a bit smudged.

She splashed her face with cold water and fixed her hair before she went back to the Doctor. A man dressed in black leather, wearing a bike helmet, passed her on her way back and Gemma frowned as her eyes followed him around a corner. It seemed weird that he wouldn’t even take his helmet off inside the hospital.

Gemma had just slipped back into the chair beside the Doctor’s bed, when a group of doctors entered the room and made their way over to them.

“Now then, Mister Smith, a very good morning to you. Miss Chesterton,” Doctor Stoker greeted them as he pushed back the curtain around the Doctor’s bed. Gemma smiled widely, when she noticed Martha among the interns. “How are you today?”

“Oh, not so bad. Still a bit, you know, blah,” the Doctor told and briefly showed them his tongue. Gemma was too busy watching Martha to act like the caring girlfriend.

Her friend looked much younger than the Martha she knew, even though it would only be a year till the young doctor joined UNIT. It was also strange seeing the headstrong woman following Doctor Stoker around, listening to his every word.  

“John Smith admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains,” Stoker told the interns gathered around the bed and then looked down at Martha, who was stood beside him. “Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me.”

“That wasn't very clever, running around outside, was it?” Martha told the Doctor as she moved around the bed to where Gemma was sitting and picked up the stethoscope hanging around her neck.

“Sorry?” the Doctor questioned with a frown and shared a confused look with Gemma, who had no idea what Martha was talking about either.

“On Chancellor Street this morning? The two of you came up to me and she took your tie off,” Martha elaborated with a gesture of her head towards Gemma.

“Really? What did we do that for?” the Doctor asked as he stared at Martha, who was growing equally confused by the Doctor’s denial.

“I don't know, you just did.”

“Not us. I was here, in bed. Juliet was right beside me. Ask the nurses.”

“Well, that's weird, cos it looked like you. Have you got a brother? And a sister?”

“Not that we know of,” Gemma replied with a shake of her head and Martha turned to look at her with a frown.

“As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones.” Stoker sighed tiredly and Martha smiled apologetically.  

“Sorry. Right.”

Gemma watched silently as Martha put the stethoscope in her ears and then placed the resonator on the Doctor’s chest. She was curious to see what would happen, when Martha noticed the two heartbeats. Doctor Stoker hadn’t when he had first examined the Doctor.  

A surprised expression spread on Martha’s face as she first listened to the left side, and she briefly looked up at the Doctor before moving the resonator to the right side of his chest. Gemma rolled her eyes, when the Doctor just winked at Martha, who was staring at him in shock.

“I weep for future generations. Are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?” Stoker interrupted and Gemma noticed the other interns smirk as Martha stepped away from the Doctor.

“Er, I don't know. Stomach cramps?”

“That is a symptom, not a diagnosis,” Stoker told her with a patronizing smile and moved to the end of the bed, where he picked up the Doctor’s medical chart. “And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart.”

Gemma and the Doctor shared a quick look, when Stoker touched the metal clip holding together the chart and a visible electric current burned his fingers. That wasn’t something they had seen happen at the hospital before.

“That happened to me this morning,” Martha said, when the shock made Stoker drop the chart on the bed, and the other interns quickly provided their own experiences.   

“I had the same thing on the door handle.”

“And me, on the lift.”

“That's only to be expected. There's a thunderstorm moving in and lightning is a form of static electricity, as was first proven by… anyone?” Stoker explained and glanced at his interns as he waited for one of them to answer his question.  

“Benjamin Franklin,” the Doctor spoke before any of the interns could and Gemma shook her head at his showing-off. He probably even knew the guy.  

“Correct.”

“My mate, Ben. That was a day and a half. I got rope burns off that kite, and then I got soaked,” the Doctor told, proving Gemma right, and she pressed her lips together to hide a smile as Stoker and the interns stared at him as if he was crazy.

“Quite.”

“And _then_ I got electrocuted,” the Doctor finished with a grin and looked at Gemma, who discretely placed a hand in front of her mouth, so they wouldn’t hear her laugh.

“Moving on,” Stoker told the interns and Gemma heard him mutter something about psychiatric to one of the nurses. Gemma sent Martha a bright smile, when her friend glanced at them over her shoulder before leaving the room with the other interns.

“Poor Martha.” Gemma laughed after all the interns had left the room and the Doctor sent her a confused look.

“Martha? Who’s Martha?”

“Jones. Martha Jones,” Gemma explained and knew that she had said too much. “The intern who just discovered you have two hearts.”

“You know her?”

“Spoilers, my dear, spoilers,” Gemma told the Doctor with a smirk and patted his hand as she stood up. “What now?”

“Time to have another look around,” the Doctor said as he swung his legs out of the bed and rose to his feet. Gemma tried not to laugh as he stood in front of her in his pyjamas, bare-footed.

“Wait, another look?” Gemma questioned as they snuck out of the ward and the Doctor grabbed a robe hanging over a chair as they passed by. “When was the first look?”

“Well, I couldn’t watch you sleep all night, could I?”

“Well, you weren’t supposed to let me sleep all night.”

“Come on,” the Doctor urged instead of answering and grabbed her hand to pull her around a corner as Stoker walked towards them. Half an hour later they still hadn’t found the source of the plasma coils or the static electricity, which had shocked them a few times.

Gemma almost waved when they passed a doctors’ break room and she saw Martha inside, talking on her phone. Their eyes met for a brief moment, but the Doctor had pulled her away before Martha had time to stop them.

Gemma came to a full stop as they passed a room of patients with the door open and she noticed the rain pelting on the windows. But it wasn’t normal rain. It was going up.

“Doctor?” Gemma called when he continued a few steps without her and he spun around to follow her inside the room. “The rain, it’s like the gravity outside has changed.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere!” the Doctor exclaimed as he grabbed the windowsill and stared at the rain searchingly.

“Literally or?”

Gemma’s question was answered the next second as everything began to shake violently. She fell to the floor beside the Doctor, who pulled her tightly against him and sheltered her head with his arms as everything that wasn’t bolted down or locked in place was thrown around the room.

“What the bloody hell just happened?” Gemma exclaimed when the shaking stopped seconds later and her eyes widened in shock as she jumped to her feet and looked out of the window.

Outside, day had turned into night and they were definitely no longer in London. The Earth hung like a blue orb in the sky and half of it was covered in darkness as it was turned away from the sun. They were on the Moon and Gemma immediately knew who was behind the move.

“Right then. Time to get dressed,” the Doctor said as he grabbed her hand and they ran out of the room. Around them patients, nurses and doctors were either screaming and crying or trying to calm down those who were.

As they made it back to the orthopaedic ward the Doctor disappeared behind the curtain around his bed, while Gemma ran to the window.

“All right now, everyone back to bed, we've got an emergency but we'll sort it out. Don't worry,” a voice called out in an authoritative tone and Gemma turned around to see Martha walking into the room with one of the other interns on her heels. 

“It's real. It's really real,” Martha exclaimed with wonder shinning from her eyes and gaped at Gemma, who was watching her with a smile. “Hold on.”

“Don't! We'll lose all the air,” the other intern cried out as Martha reached forward to open the window. 

“But they're not exactly air tight,” Martha argued as the other woman held her hand between hers. “If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?”

“Very good point. Brilliant, in fact,” the Doctor interjected loudly as he pulled the curtains to the side, revealing himself to them. Gemma was surprised by how fast he had managed to change into his suit. “What was your name?”

“Martha.”

“And it was Jones, wasn't it?” the Doctor asked as he glanced at Gemma, who nodded in confirmation. “Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?”

“We can't be,” the other intern sobbed as the Doctor stepped forward and started examining the windows. 

“Obviously we are, so don't waste my time,” the Doctor told the young woman and Gemma couldn’t but feel a little annoyed by her as well. “Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or-“

“By the patients' lounge, yeah,” Martha told and squared her shoulder as the Doctor turned to look at her.  

“Fancy going out?”

“Okay.”

“We might die,” Gemma warned with a serious expression and Martha’s eyes shifted to her.

“We might not.”

“Good. Come on.” The Doctor smiled as he grabbed Gemma’s hand and pointed at the crying intern on their way out. “Not her, she'd hold us up.”

“Rude,” Gemma muttered as they followed Martha to the patients’ lounge and she had to jog to keep up with Doctor’s long strides.

He ignored her as they made to the balcony and the three of them shared a brief look before Martha and the Doctor pushed the doors open.

“We've got air. How does that work?” Martha questioned with a disbelieving laugh after taking a sharp inhale.

“Just be glad it does,” the Doctor said as Gemma pulled him to the edge of the balcony and they both paused to take in the breath-taking view.

“I've got a party tonight,” Martha spoke with a slightly trembling voice as she came to stand beside them. “It's my brother's twenty-first. My mother's going to be really, really…”

“Hey, it’s okay. We’re gonna be okay,” Gemma comforted her, when Martha’s voice trailed off and it sounded like she might start to cry. Gemma wanted to hug her friend, but squeezed her arm instead as Martha probably would mind being hugged by a stranger.  

“Want to go back in?” the Doctor asked with a frown and watched the soft smile on Gemma’s lips as he tried to figure how well she knew Martha.  

“No way,” Martha said with a shake of her head and smiled at Gemma, who let go of her arm. “I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same, it's beautiful.”

“Yeah,” Gemma breathed and felt slightly hypnotized by the Earth shinning back at them.

An unwelcoming thought reminded her of how it one day would burn and a lonely Star Whale would come to save the children. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she glanced at the Doctor, who was staring at the Earth as well.

“How many people want to go to the Moon? And here we are,” Martha exclaimed with a small laugh and didn’t notice the silent conversation happening between Gemma and the Doctor.

He sent her a questioning look, when he noticed the faraway look in her eyes, but Gemma simply shook her head. She couldn’t possibly explain to him what she was thinking.

“Standing in the Earthlight,” the Doctor added, when he realized Martha had spoken, and he watched Gemma as she leaned her elbows on the railing of the balcony. Whatever she was thinking about, it was making her sad.  

“What do you think happened?” Martha asked them and looked at the Doctor over Gemma’s back.

“What do you think?”

“Extra-terrestrial. It's got to be,” Martha told in a firm voice and Gemma smiled at her assertiveness. “I don't know, a few years ago that would have sounded mad, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben, Christmas, those Cybermen things.

“I had a cousin, Adeola.” Martha sighed after a brief pause and Gemma stood up straight as she listened to Martha speak with a feeling of sadness in her chest. “She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home.”

“I'm sorry,” the Doctor spoke quietly and Gemma placed a comforting hand on Martha’s shoulder, making the younger woman smile sadly.

“Yeah.”

“We were there, in the battle,” the Doctor told as he turned his head to look at the Earth, and his voice was no more than a whisper. Gemma frowned as she noticed the distant look in the Doctor’s eyes.

She already knew what had happened at the Canary Wharf as it had been UNIT’s job to clean up after Torchwood, and the Daleks and Cybermen had killed hundreds. But she hadn’t imagined actually being there, fighting against the aliens.

A flicker of emotion in the Doctor’s eyes as they met hers made Gemma’s heart drop to her stomach. She had read the long list of casualties and suddenly had a bad feeling one of those names wouldn’t be unfamiliar to her in the future.

They had lost someone. Someone important and now the Doctor was travelling alone.

“I promise you, Mister Smith and Miss Chesterton, we will find a way out,” Martha spoke determinedly and Gemma blinked as she was pulled out of her thoughts. The Doctor held her gaze for a moment longer before his eyes started darting around searchingly.

“If we can travel to the Moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way.”

“It's not Smith. That's not my real name,” the Doctor said as he moved to the other side of the balcony, glancing over the railing.

“And you can just call me Gemma,” Gemma interjected with a smile and Martha gave a short nod before turning towards the Doctor.

“Who are you, then?”

“I'm the Doctor.”

“Me too, if I can pass my exams.” Martha laughed, but frowned when she glanced at Gemma, who wore a neutral expression on her face. “What is it then, Doctor Smith?”

“Just the Doctor.”

“How do you mean, just the Doctor?” Martha questioned as her eyes followed his movements from one side of the balcony to the other.

“Just the Doctor,” he replied in a slightly confused tone as if he didn’t understand why Martha kept doubting him.

Gemma pressed her lips together to hide her smile, when she remembered the conversation she had had with his future-self. Simply saying ‘I’m the Doctor’ clearly didn’t work on Martha either.

“What, people call you the Doctor?”

“Yeah.”

“Or the Great Big Idiot if I’m in a mood,” Gemma joked and sent the Doctor an innocent smile, when he narrowed his eyes at her.

“Well, I'm not,” Martha scoffed and Gemma shot her an impressed look, which she didn’t notice. “As far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title.”

“Well, I'd better make a start then. Let's have a look,” the Doctor said as he picked up small rock and threw it over the balcony. “There must be some sort of force field keeping the air in.”

The rock didn’t make it far as it hit an invisible bubble and a blue light revealed the force field build around the hospital.

“But if that's like a bubble sealing us in, that means this is the only air we've got. What happens when it runs out?” Martha asked with a small tilt of her head and Gemma could already hear the clock ticking inside her head, counting down to the moment there would no longer be air to fill their lungs.

“How many people in this hospital?”

“I don't know. A thousand?”

“One thousand people, suffocating,” Gemma spoke quietly and shared a look of concern with the Doctor.

“Why would anyone do that?” Martha questioned disbelievingly.

“Head's up!” the Doctor called as a loud sound came from above them and they all lifted their eyes to the sky. “Ask them yourself.”

Three massive spaceships, shaped like columns, appeared over their heads and landed on the Moon less than a kilometre from the hospital. Rows of marching figures exited the spaceships and Gemma didn’t have to see them up close to know what they were. She remembered this case.  

“Aliens. That's aliens. Real, proper aliens,” Martha exclaimed with wide eyes and Gemma took a deep breath, when the Doctor spoke their name.

“Judoon.”

“Well, then.” Gemma sighed and grabbed both the Doctor and Martha’s hands. “Let’s get ourselves into some trouble.”

The Doctor grinned at her before taking off and Gemma pulled Martha with them as they ran towards the reception. They slowed down as soon as they heard the commotion and people screaming, and crouched down behind a plant so they could watch the Judoon from the mezzanine level above the reception.

“Oh, look down there, you've got a little shop. I like a little shop,” the Doctor mused with a wide smile and Gemma rolled her eyes at him.

“And I promise later I’ll buy you a teddy, but right now focus, please,” Gemma told the Doctor with a smile, which made him stare at her as if he couldn’t decide whether she was being sarcastic or not.

“Not any chocolate?” the Doctor asked with a feigned look of disappointment and Gemma teasingly poked the tip of his nose.

“Anything for you, darling.”

“Never mind that,” Martha interrupted with a slightly disturbed expression on her face as she had watched the two of them joke while people were screaming and crying right underneath them. “What are Judoon?”

“They're like police. Well, police for hire. They're more like interplanetary thugs,” the Doctor explained while Gemma blushed at being chastised by Martha.  

“And they brought us to the Moon?”

“Neutral territory. According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, and they isolated it. That rain, lightning? That was them, using an H2O scoop.”

“What are you on about, galactic law? Where'd you get that from?” Martha asked with a small shake of her head, clearly thinking that the Doctor was just making stuff up. “If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassing on the Moon or something?”

“No, but I like that. Good thinking,” the Doctor replied and sent Martha an impressed look, making Gemma smile proudly at her friend. She probably wouldn’t even have to convince the Doctor to take Martha with them in the TARDIS.

“No, I wish it were that simple. They're making a catalogue. That means they're after something non-human, which is very bad news for us.”  

“Why?” Martha whispered back as she stared down at the Judoon, but turned her head to look at the Doctor, when he didn’t answer. “Oh, you're kidding me. Don't be ridiculous.”

“Stop looking at me like that,” Martha told the Doctor, when he only lifted an eyebrow in response, and Martha’s smile dropped when she glanced at Gemma, who remained quiet as well. “What about you?”

“Definitely part human.”

“And the other parts?”

“Ask him,” Gemma muttered with a gesture of her head towards the Doctor and sent him an annoyed look. She knew now wasn’t the time to confront him about it, but the reminder made her mood take a dive.

“Come on then,” the Doctor urged the two women after having frowned at the way Gemma stared at him, and ran off. Gemma quickly followed with a small sigh and Martha was right behind her.

A couple of minutes later they made it to one of the administration offices and the Doctor sat down in front of a computer, while Martha ran back out to spy on the Judoon.

“What’s wrong?” the Doctor asked as he found his screwdriver in his inner pocket and started sonicing the computer. He briefly glanced at Gemma, who was leaning against the table with her arms crossed in front of her.

“Now is really not the time, Doctor.”

“You’re cross with me. Why are you cross with me?”

The Doctor didn’t get an answer as Martha ran back into the room and leaned over the desk stood between her and them.

“They've reached third floor,” she told them in a slightly panicked voice and then frowned at the metallic tube in the Doctor’s hand. “What's that thing?”

“Sonic screwdriver.”

“Well, if you're not going to answer me properly,” Martha spoke in an annoyed tone and the Doctor finally looked up from his work as he showed her the screwdriver.

“No, really, it is. It's a screwdriver, and it's sonic. Look.”

“What else have you got, a laser spanner?” Martha joked as she moved around the table and came to a stop between Gemma and the Doctor.

“I did, but it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, cheeky woman,” the Doctor replied in a monotone voice as he soniced the computer before suddenly hitting it angrily. “Oh, this computer! The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the Moon.”

“Say that fast five times,” Gemma muttered, mostly to herself, but glanced at the Doctor to see if he heard her. He hadn’t.

“Because I was just travelling past, waiting for Gemma. I swear, I was just wandering. I wasn't looking for trouble, honestly, I wasn't, but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, and that lightning, that's a plasma coil. Been building up for two days now, and then Gemma came so we checked in. I thought something was going on inside. It turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above.”

Gemma listened to the Doctor talk with a beginning frown and the frustration in his voice had her worried. She knew he usually didn’t seek out trouble himself, but the way he said made it sound like he was actively avoiding it. Which didn’t seem like him at all.  

“But what were they looking for?” Martha asked and looked a little taken aback by the Doctor’s outburst.    

“Something that looks human, but isn't,” Gemma told her in a calm voice and a smile played on Martha’s lips as she glanced between Gemma and the Doctor.

“Like you, apparently.”

“Like us. But not us,” the Doctor replied as he rapidly clicked through several blank hospital records on the computer.  

“Still part human over here,” Gemma called with a tight smile and waved her hand at the other two, making the Doctor’s frown deepen as he glanced at her. 

“Haven't they got a photo?”

“Well, might be a shape-changer.”

“Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?”

“If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution,” the Doctor told offhandedly as he was busy trying to figure out why all the records were blank.

“All of us?” Martha asked with a horrified expression on her face.

“Oh yes. If I can find this thing first,” the Doctor replied calmly, and Gemma and Martha both flinched away, when he suddenly yelled at the computer. “Oh! You see, they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick! They wiped the records. Oh, that's clever.”

“What are we looking for?” Martha questioned in a trembling voice and Gemma could see how her heart was in her throat as Martha held her hand against it.

“I don't know. Say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up,” the Doctor said and he pulled at his hair, making it look untamed.

“Just keep working,” Martha told them as the Doctor tipped over the computer screen and started sonicing it. “I'll go ask Mister Stoker. He might know.”

Gemma watched Martha run out of the room and wondered if she should go with her, but the Doctor’s frustrated sigh as he dropped the computer made her reconsider.

“Let me try,” Gemma suggested as she pulled the Doctor out of the chair to sit down herself.

She wasn’t exactly Lisbeth Salander, but knew her way around a computer enough to have hacked into databases before; primarily in her work with UNIT, but a couple of times for her own curiosity’s sake. Over time she had learn to crack even alien technology.

Gemma did her best to ignore the Doctor’s proximity as he leaned in from behind to watch her work and she pressed her lips together in concentration, when his breath tickled her neck. At least he wasn’t trying to make her talk about why she was annoyed with him. She wasn’t actually sure why herself.

She had realized there were things he couldn’t yet tell because of their muddled timelines and she was too old to act like a child, who was angry for not getting her way.

But the fact that he was lying to her by omission hurt her and she couldn’t decide whether to yell at him or just remain quiet. None of the options would solve anything.

“There,” Gemma said as she hit Enter and the back-up of the hospital records appeared on the screen.

“Oh, you are brilliant.” The Doctor grinned and Gemma turned her head with a smile, finding him to be much closer than she had anticipated.

“We should go find Martha,” Gemma spoke as she averted her eyes from the Doctor’s and tried to ignore the surge of affection she felt for him. She shook the thoughts out of her head as the Doctor grabbed her hand and they ran out of the room.

“Gemma restored the back-up,” the Doctor informed Martha as they practically crashed together in the hallway and Gemma immediately noticed the panicked expression on Martha’s face.

“I found her.”

“You what?”

Behind Martha a door was suddenly kicked down and a man dressed in all leather with a helmet on his head was coming straight towards them. Gemma realized it was the same man she had seen earlier, after waking up.

“Run!” the Doctor yelled and Gemma managed to grab Martha’s hand before she was pulled along by the Doctor. It wasn’t long till she had to let go and she felt her own hand slip out of the Doctor’s as they sprinted around a corner.

Running down a stairwell they almost collided with a Judoon squad coming from a lower floor and the Doctor quickly led them away through empty halls. Gemma tried not to look back at their pursuer as she feared it would slow her down.

Gemma ran into the Doctor’s arms when he suddenly spun around to catch her and he quickly pushed her down a narrow hall. Martha followed moments later and suddenly the Doctor was ushering them into a room, closing the door just as the leather-clad man caught up.

“When I say now, press the button,” the Doctor yelled at Gemma as he pushed Martha and her behind a glass screen and pulled out his screwdriver to sonic the x-ray machine in the room.  

“Do you know which one?” Martha asked shakenly as she joined Gemma by the controls and all Gemma could do was shrug. She had used an x-ray before but had never seen the control panel in front of her.

She didn’t have time to think too much about it though, as the door was kicked in by the leather-clad man and the Doctor pointed the machine at him.

“Now!”

Gemma didn’t hesitate when she heard the Doctor yell and punched a big yellow button on the panel. A massive dose of radiation hit the leather-clad man, and Gemma and Martha closed their eyes against the bright light.

Through squinted eyes Gemma saw the man fall and she quickly switched off the machine. She was slightly surprised to find the Doctor still standing.

“What did you do?” Martha asked with a shocked expression on her face and glanced between Gemma and the Doctor with wide eyes.  

“Increased the radiation by five thousand percent. Killed him dead.”

“But isn't that going to kill you?”

“Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery. It's safe for you to come out. I've absorbed it all,” the Doctor told them and Gemma watched with an amused frown as he started shaking his body.

She followed Martha out from behind the glass screen and bit her lower lip to stop herself from laughing at the Doctor.  

“All I need to do is expel it. If I concentrate I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot,” the Doctor explained and started hopping on his right foot, shaking his left one. “It's in my left shoe. Here we go, here we go. Easy does it. Out, out, out, out, out. Ow, ow, ow. Itches, itches, itches. Hold on.”

“Done,” the Doctor said as he pulled off his left Converse and sock, and threw it in the bin beside him. Gemma giggled as Martha stared at him in amazement.  

“You're completely mad.”

“And he’s just getting started,” Gemma laughed and then turned to the Doctor, glancing down at his right foot. “You’re just gonna run around with one shoe on then?”

“You're right. I look daft with one shoe,” the Doctor replied with a serious expression on his face before throwing his other shoe and sock in the bin as well.  

“Barefoot on the Moon,” he said while wiggling his toes and clicked his teeth together, making Gemma smile. Beside her Martha shook her head in disbelieve and then turned to look at the leather-clad man on the floor.

“So what is that thing? And where's it from, the planet Zovirax?” she asked as she crouched down beside it and the Doctor did the same on the other side of the body. Gemma stood beside him and carefully prodded the body with her foot.

“It's just a Slab. They're called Slabs. Basic slave drones. See?” the Doctor told and squeezed the Slab’s arm, while Martha did the same to the other. “Solid leather, all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish.”

“But it was that woman, Miss Finnegan. It was working for her, just like a servant,” Martha said as she stood up as well, but neither Gemma nor the Doctor were listening as they stared at the fried sonic screwdriver the Doctor had pulled from the x-ray machine.

“My sonic screwdriver,” the Doctor spoke in a sad voice and Gemma sympathetically placed her hand on his back as he looked down at it with a mournful look in his eyes. 

“She was one of the patients, but-“ Martha continued as she turned to look at Gemma and the Doctor, but was interrupted by the Time Lord.

“Oh, no. My sonic screwdriver.”

“You can make a new one, can’t you?” Gemma asked as she carefully took the screwdriver from the Doctor and looked it over. It was definitely dead. But she had seen him in the future with a screwdriver. Two different ones even, so it shouldn’t be too hard to make a new one.

“She had a straw like some kind of vampire.”

“I loved my sonic screwdriver,” the Doctor told Gemma as she gave the device back to him and she pressed her lips together to keep a smile off her face. It was a bit amusing how attached he was to the thing.  

“Doctor?” Martha called in a slightly annoyed tone and Gemma gaped when the Doctor threw the screwdriver over his shoulder without another look at it. A second ago he had seemed prepared to give it a funeral.

“Sorry,” the Doctor replied as he turned to look at Martha and a bright smile suddenly lit up his face. “You called me Doctor.”

“Anyway,” Martha snapped at him and Gemma forced a serious expression to her face even as the Doctor beamed down at her in happiness over Martha using his name. “Miss Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mister Stoker's blood.”

“Mister _Stoker_ was killed by having his blood drained? That’s a bit ironic, don’t you think?” Gemma asked with a tilt of her head and glanced at the Doctor, who tried his best to hold back a smile. Martha, on the other hand, looked slightly horrified by Gemma’s morbid joke.

“Funny time to take a snack. You'd think she'd be hiding. Unless. No. Yes, that's it. Wait a minute,” the Doctor thought out loud and a look of realization crossed his face, making him yell. “Yes! Shape-changer. Internal shape-changer. She wasn't drinking blood, she was assimilating it.”

“But if she can assimilate Mister Stoker’s blood…” Gemma’s voice trailed off as she realized what that meant and the Doctor nodded at her in agreement.

“She can mimic the biology and she'll register as human. We've got to find her and show the Judoon. Come on!” the Doctor finished before sprinting out of the room, leaving Gemma and Martha to follow him.

They hadn’t made it far when the Doctor suddenly pulled them around a corner and made them crouch behind a water dispenser. When Gemma opened her mouth to ask what they were doing, the Doctor placed his hand over it and put a shushing finger in front of his own lips to keep her quiet.

Moments later they heard a door open down the hall and another Slab walked past without noticing them. Gemma pushed away the Doctor’s hand as soon as the Slab was out of sight.  

“That's the thing about Slabs. They always travel in pairs,” the Doctor spoke quietly as his now free hand grabbed Gemma’s.  

“What about you two?” Martha asked with a curious look between them before her eyes landed on their connected hands and Gemma felt herself blush at the question. The Doctor didn’t seem to understand Martha’s insinuation, though.

“What about us, what?”

“Are you a couple or something?”

“A couple? No, no, no. Just friends, travelling together. Nothing more,” Gemma told with a forced laugh and relaxed her hand in the Doctor’s, hoping he would let go of it, which he did after a couple of seconds.

“Humans,” the Doctor then spoke with a roll of his eyes. “We're stuck on the Moon running out of air with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal, you're discussing personal questions? Come on.”

Slowly, they all stood up from their crouching positions and Martha scoffed at the Doctor as she followed him and Gemma.

“I like that. Humans. I'm still not convinced you're an alien.”

“He’s got two hearts, Martha,” Gemma reminded with a look at the other woman over her shoulder before suddenly bumping into the Doctor, who was staring into the face of a Judoon.

“Non-human,” the Judoon stated after having scanned the Doctor and Gemma instinctively grabbed his hand to pull him back.  

“Oh my God, you really are,” Martha spoke as she stared at the Doctor with wide eyes and he quickly grabbed her hand.

“And again!”

The three of them sprinted down the hall, away from the Judoon, and ducked their heads as the aliens fired their weapons at them. Gemma could feel her breathing get more and more laboured as they ran up the stairs to next floor and locked the door behind them. She was running out of air. They all were.

“They've done this floor. Come on. The Judoon are logical and just a little bit thick,” the Doctor told as they started walking down a hall, where both patients and doctors were slumping against the walls as they struggled to breathe. “They won't go back to check a floor they've checked already. If we're lucky.”

“Doctor,” Gemma called quietly and pulled him to a stop, when she noticed Martha had paused to talk to the other female intern, who had earlier tried to stop Martha from opening the windows.

“How much oxygen is there?”

“Not enough for all these people. We're going to run out,” the female intern told Martha as she held an oxygen mask to a patient’s mouth. Her own breathing was laboured as well.   

“How are you feeling? Are you all right?” the Doctor asked Martha, who was crouched down beside her friend and then caught Gemma’s gaze with a questioning look.

Gemma tried to take a deep breath to somehow reassure him she was doing fine, but didn’t manage to completely fill her lungs with air.

“I'm running on adrenaline,” Martha told him with a smile and Gemma nodded in agreement as she leaned her back against the wall.

“Welcome to our world,” the Doctor replied as he moved to stand in front of Gemma and lifted her chin so he could look her in the eyes. “Gem?”

“I’m fine, really. Just need to catch my breath a bit.” Gemma smiled at him and let herself get pulled away from the wall by the Doctor’s hand.  

“What about the Judoon?” Martha inquired as she watched the pair and easily noticed the worried expression on the Doctor’s face.

“Nah, great big lung reserves. It won't slow them down,” the Doctor said as he turned away from Gemma to look at Martha. “Where's Mister Stoker's office?”

“It's this way,” Martha told as she rose from the floor and walked past the Doctor and Gemma to lead them to the office. It was just around the corner and the Doctor placed the two women behind him as they carefully approached the room.

“She's gone. She was here,” Martha exclaimed quietly as she walked inside to find it empty.

The Doctor let go of Gemma’s hand as he ran forward to examine the body on the floor. It was Stoker’s body and the skin was completely grey after having been emptied for blood.

“Drained him dry, every last drop. I was right. She's a Plasmavore,” the Doctor said as he knelt over the body and Gemma felt a moment of sadness for the man as she looked at him over the Doctor’s shoulder.

“What's she doing on Earth?”

“Hiding. On the run. Like Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro,” the Doctor explained and frowned as he tried to figure out the Plasmavore’s next move. “What's she doing now? She's still not safe. The Judoon could execute us all. Come on.”

“Wait a minute,” Martha called out as the Doctor jumped to his feet and ran to the door.

Gemma and the Doctor shared a brief look at Martha’s request and then watched as the young woman knelt down and closed Stoker’s eyes. They all paused as they walked back into the hall, uncertain of where to go next.

“Think, think, think. If I was a Plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do?” the Doctor wondered as he glanced around the corridor and he made a grimace, when he noticed the sign reading ‘MRI’.  “Ah. She's as clever as me. Almost.”

Gemma opened her mouth to ask what he was thinking, but was interrupted by a loud crash down the hall and screams suddenly filled the corridor as the Judoon pushed their way through the frightened patients.

“Find the non-human. Execute,” one of the Judoons ordered and Gemma’s took a quick turn around herself, looking for an exit. The Doctor seemed to have other plans as he placed himself in front of Martha and stared at her with an urgent look in his eyes.  

“Martha, stay here. We need time. You've got to hold them up.”

“How do I do that?”

“Just forgive me for this. It could save a thousand lives. It means nothing,” the Doctor insisted and Gemma blinked in surprise as his eyes suddenly found hers. “Honestly, nothing.”

Gemma inhaled sharply, when the Doctor reached for Martha and crushed his lips against hers. She stared at them for a long second before she turned her head away, feeling awkward staring at them.

The kiss broke a couple of seconds later and the Doctor unceremoniously let go of Martha as he grabbed Gemma’s hand and pulled her with him, away from the Judoon. Briefly glancing over her shoulder, Gemma saw a dazed expression appear on Martha’s face before she disappeared out of sight.

“What the hell was that about?” Gemma yelled at the Doctor as they sprinted through the halls, jumping over patients and nurses lying on the floor and by the walls.

“Just a genetic transfer, nothing more. It was my only option, Gemma. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“What? Kiss me?” Gemma whispered jokingly as they came to a stop outside the MRI room. She felt her breath get caught in her throat, when a look of regret filled the Doctor’s eyes.

Gemma stilled when he suddenly grabbed the back of her neck and pressed his lips firmly against hers. Her eyes fell shut as she felt her heart skip a beat, but the kiss was over before she knew it. She barely had time to open her eyes before the Doctor, without a word, pulled her with him into the MRI room.

A flash of bright light made her squint her eyes and coils of electricity danced around the MRI scanner. Looking to her left, she noticed an old lady in the control booth, working with their back to them. It was Ms. Finnegan, the Plasmavore.

“Have you seen them? There are these things. These great big space rhino things. I mean, rhinos from space. And we're on the Moon! Great big space rhinos with guns on the Moon,” the Doctor started ranting to the old lady, who didn’t even pause in her work.

“And I only came in for my bunions, look. I mean, all fixed now,” the Doctor continued nonsensically and lifted his bare foot to show her the non-existing bunions. “Perfectly good treatment. The nurses were lovely. I said to my wife here, I said I'd recommend this place to anyone, didn’t I, honey? But then we end up on the Moon. And did I mention the rhinos?”

Gemma nodded eagerly as the Doctor addressed her and they finally seemed to have caught Ms. Finnegan’s attention as she stepped out of the control room with an annoyed expression on her face.

“Hold them,” she ordered someone behind them and a leather-clad hand wrapped tightly around Gemma’s arm as she was pulled away from the Doctor. It was the other Slab and Gemma fought unsuccessfully against its grip.

Its other hand was wrapped around the Doctor’s arm and Gemma paused, when she noticed he wasn’t trying to get out of its hold. Their eyes met briefly and Gemma stilled as he with a look told her to keep calm.

“Er, that, that big, er, machine thing. Is it supposed to be making that noise?” the Doctor asked Ms. Finnegan as she moved over to the MRI scanner and looked inside.  

“You wouldn't understand,” she told them without turning around and Gemma glanced at the Doctor, hoping he had figured what Ms. Finnegan was up to and how to stop it because Gemma wasn’t sure yet.  

“But isn't that a magnetic resonance imaging thing? Like a ginormous sort of a magnet? I did magnetics GCSE. Well, I failed, but all the same.”

“The magnetic setting now increased to fifty thousand Tesla,” the Plasmavore mused and Gemma’s eyes widened in response. She was slowly getting what was going on and she did not like one bit of it.  

“Ooo, that's a bit strong… isn't it?” the Doctor frowned and quickly added the last bit to make it sound like a question.

“It'll send out a magnetic pulse that'll fry the brain stems of every living thing within two hundred and fifty thousand miles. Except for me, safe in this room.”

“Contrary to my husband here, I actually passed all my GCSEs. Including geography,” Gemma told as Ms. Finnegan walked past them back to the control room and she shared a worried look with the Doctor. “Doesn't that distance include the Earth?”  

“Only the side facing the Moon. The other half will survive. Call it my little gift.” Ms. Finnegan grinned and Gemma frowned as she tried her hardest to act confused like the Doctor did.  

“I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me, I'm a little out of my depth. I've spent the past fifteen years working as a postman. Hence the bunions. Why would you do that?”

“With everyone dead, the Judoon ships will be mine, to make my escape.”

“No, that's weird. You're talking like you're some sort of an alien.” The Doctor laughed disbelievingly and Gemma forced a surprised expression to her face.

“Quite so.”

“No!”

“Oh, yes.”

“You're joshing me.”

“I am not.”

“Did you hear that, honey?” the Doctor asked Gemma with a wide-eyed look and she gaped at Ms. Finnegan in shock. “We’re talking to an alien? In a hospital? What, has the place got an E.T. department?”

“It's the perfect hiding place. Blood banks downstairs for a midnight feast, and all this equipment ready to arm myself with should the police come looking,” Ms. Finnegan happily told them and gestured at the room with her arms.

“The rhinos, they're looking for you then?” Gemma questioned with wide eyes and Ms. Finnegan walked over to her, showing her the mark on her hand, which registered her as human.

“Yes. But I'm hidden.”

“Right. Maybe that's why they're increasing their scans,” The Doctor said with a look of realization on his face and Gemma’s mask slipped as she frowned at him in confusion. Why would he tell her that?

“They're doing what?” Ms. Finnegan exclaimed as she spun around to look at them and Gemma noticed a flash of fear cross her face.

“Big chief rhino boy, he said, no sign of a non-human, we must increase our scans up to setting two?” the Doctor told her casually and sent Gemma a questioning look to make her nod in confirmation.

“Then I must assimilate again.”

“Assimilate?” Gemma asked with a confused expression, but couldn’t help but feel nervous. She had realized what the Doctor was doing and she did not like it.

“I must appear to be human,” Ms. Finnegan spoke to herself as she went back into the control room and found her purse.

“Well, you're welcome to come home with me and the wife. We'd be honoured. We can have cake. Gemma makes delicious banana breads,” the Doctor told her enthusiastically and Gemma’s stomach dropped when Ms. Finnegan turned to face them with a straw in her hand.

“Why should I have cake? I've got my little straw.”

“Oh, that's nice. Milkshake? I like banana.” The Doctor smiled as she came to stand in front of him, showing him the straw. Gemma felt her heartbeat quicken as Ms. Finnegan stared at the Doctor with a malevolent smile on her lips.

“You're quite the funny man. And yet, I think, laughing on purpose at the darkness. I think it's time you found some peace. Steady him!” Ms. Finnegan ordered and the Slab let go of Gemma. She didn’t have time to react as the back of the Slab’s hand connected with her face and she fell to the floor.

“Don’t touch her!” the Doctor yelled with real anger in his voice and struggled against the Slab’s hold as he was forced to his knees and his head was pushed to the side, giving Ms. Finnegan access to his neck.

“What are you doing to him?” Gemma questioned in a trembling voice as she lifted herself to her elbow and shared a brief look with the Doctor to tell him she was okay. Her cheek stung and she felt dizzy, but she was okay. Which was more than the Doctor would soon be.

“I'm afraid this is going to hurt,” Ms. Finnegan told the Doctor as she rubbed his neck with a smile. “But if it's any consolation, the dead don't tend to remember.”

“What are you doing?” Gemma called out in horror as Ms. Finnegan pushed the straw into the Doctor’s neck and started sucking on the other end. “Stop it! Leave him alone!”

Gemma felt like throwing up as she watched the straw fill with the Doctor’s blood and she placed a hand over her mouth to stop the bile rising in her throat.

“Please, don’t hurt him. He’s all I got.” Gemma sobbed and weakly reached out for the Doctor. If she wanted she could easily get to him, but she needed to stay where she was for the plan to work.

It was a stupid plan that she would yell at him for later, but it was their last option. They were running out of air and the only way to return to Earth was for the Judoon to find the fugitive alien, which they wouldn’t as long as the Plasmavore appeared human. Drinking the Doctor’s blood would make her alien and then Martha would have to bring the Judoon to them before it was too late.

Tears filled Gemma’s eyes as she watched the Doctor grow pale and the only thing keeping him from falling to the floor was the Slab holding him.

“Please,” Gemma whispered helplessly, but her voice was drowned out by the MRI scanner, which seemed ready to explode at any moment.

When the door to the room suddenly opened and several Judoons walked inside, the Slab dropped the Doctor to the floor and Ms. Finnegan quickly withdrew her straw, dropping it back into her purse.

Gemma didn’t mind the Judoon as she crawled to the Doctor on her hands and knees. She pressed two fingers against his neck to feel for his pulse, but didn’t feel relieved when she found it. It was slow and barely there.

“Now see what you've done. This poor man just died of fright,” Ms. Finnegan yelled at the Judoon as she pointed down at the Doctor, who was unresponsive as Gemma tried to wake him up. She was losing him.

“Scan him,” the Judoon without a helmet ordered one of the others, who scanned the Doctor with a blue metallic cylinder. “Confirmation. Deceased.”

“No, no, no, no,” Gemma spoke quietly as she shook her head and felt for the Doctor’s pulse again. This time it was gone. “Please, Doctor. Don’t be dead, you can’t be dead.”

“No, he can't be,” Martha’s voice suddenly called out and Gemma looked up to see her push through the Judoons to get the Doctor. “Let me through. Let me see him.”

“Stop. Case closed,” the Judoon told her as they held her back and Martha shared a wide-eyed look with Gemma.

“But it was her. She killed him. She did it. She murdered him,” Martha yelled at the Judoon in a desperate voice and Ms. Finnegan was barely able to hide a smug smile.

“Judoon have no authority over human crime.”

“She’s not human,” Gemma hissed with a glare directed at Ms. Finnegan before turning her head to eye the scanner holstered in the Judoon’s belt. She gestured towards it with her head, when she caught Martha’s gaze, but her friend was too upset to understand.

“Oh, but I am. I've been catalogued,” Ms. Finnegan retorted and showed them the mark on her hand given to her by the Judoon.

“Martha, she’s assimilated. She drank his blood,” Gemma called out and pointed directly at the scanner to make sure Martha understood her.

Martha’s eyes widened as they rapidly shifted between Gemma, the Doctor and the scanner. Before the Judoon could stop her she had grabbed the scanner and was pointing it at Ms. Finnegan.

“Oh, I don't mind. Scan all you like,” Ms. Finnegan told in a light tone as the blue light from the scanner flickered across her forehead.

“Non-human,” the Judoon confirmed as the scan finished and Gemma let out a small sigh of relief before turning back to the Doctor. She knew CPR, she could get him back. She had to. How else had she met his future-selves?

Gemma ignored the confrontation between Ms. Finnegan and the Judoon as she managed to pull the Doctor’s body out of the crossfire. Placing her hands on the left side of his chest, she pumped his left heart five times before leaning over to do the same with the right.

She could feel her lungs burning as she tried to inhale more air than what was left in the room and then blew into the Doctor’s mouth two times. Gemma felt dizzy when she came up for air and startled, when the Slab was suddenly disintegrated by the Judoon.

A few moments later the Plasmavore was killed as well, but Gemma didn’t look up as she continued to pump the Doctor’s chest. The lack of oxygen was making her limps heavy and she let out a sob in frustration as she listened to Martha plead with the Judoon to help them, only for them to leave.  

“Gemma, the machine!” Martha cried with a trembling voice as she dropped to her knees on the other side of the Doctor’s body.       

“I know. But we need the Doctor. I won’t be able to stop it before it’s too late,” Gemma told while gasping for air and she could tell Martha was having trouble breathing properly as well.

Taking one last deep breath, she blew air into the Doctor’s lungs and didn’t manage to catch herself as she collapsed on the floor. A relieved smile spread on her lips when the Doctor coughed violently as he started breathing again and she heard Martha choke out a few words before her vision faded to black.

\------

Gemma blinked awake as she came back to consciousness and instinctively inhaled deeply, feeling air easily fill up her lungs. She frowned when she noticed the oxygen mask on her face and slowly pulled it down so she could breathe on her own.

“Hello,” a voice greeted softly from beside her and Gemma turned her head to find the Doctor sitting on her bedside. She noticed that he had changed out of his blue suit to a brown pinstriped one.

“Hi,” Gemma breathed with a smile and grabbed the Doctor’s arm to pull herself into a sitting position. He quickly reached out to help her, placing a hand on her waist and shoulder, but let go when she smacked him hard on the arm.

“What was that for?” the Doctor questioned and gaped at her as he rubbed the sore spot.

“For getting yourself killed, you idiot!” Gemma scolded with a finger pressed into his chest and the Doctor took her hand as tears made her eyes sting.

When he tugged at her hand Gemma let herself be pulled into a tight hug and her arms wrapped around his neck as she let out a deep sigh and blinked her tears away.

“You were dead. I mean, I knew you couldn’t be cos I’ve been to your future, but you were dead,” Gemma spoke quietly and managed to keep her voice steady despite the lump in her throat.

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor whispered into her neck and Gemma felt goose bumps spread across her skin. “I didn’t have any other choice.”

“I know.” Gemma nodded and took a deep breath before pulling out of the Doctor’s embrace. He seemed almost unwilling to let go of her, but Gemma scooted away to create some space between them. The situation was becoming a bit too intimate.

“I just…” she sighed as she looked down at her hands and tilted her head, when she lifted it to meet the Doctor’s gaze. “What happens to me if you die? Do I just keep jumping around? Do I go to a future where you’re not actually there? Do I spend time with you in the past, knowing that one day you’re gonna die and I won’t be able to stop it? How am I supposed to live through that?”

“You won’t. If I die then the jumping should stop. You won’t be connected to me or the TARDIS any longer.”

Well, the Doctor wasn’t actually sure that would be the case given how she was more connected to the TARDIS than him. But that wasn’t something she needed to worry about this moment.

“Well, that’s a relief,” Gemma spoke sarcastically and calmed her fingers through her tousled hair. It was no longer in the bun she had gathered it in at the hospital and she figured the Doctor had pulled it loose.

Looking around, Gemma noticed she wasn’t in her own bedroom, but in some kind of med bay in the TARDIS. Various machines were placed in a corner of the room and cabinets with medicine and medical equipment lined one of the walls.  

“Did everyone survive?” she asked with a concerned frown as she remembered the patients and staff, who must have lost air and passed out just as she did.

“No. Some of the patients already had respiratory problems and there weren’t enough oxygen to keep them alive,” the Doctor told as he stood up from the bed, turning his back to her as if to hide himself from her view. “Twelve people died. One of them was fifteen.”

“It’s not your fault,” Gemma told him softly as she could easily sense his anger and she removed the oxygen mask hanging around her neck to get out of the bed.

She felt a bit unsteady as she stood up, but her head quickly stopped spinning. She was tired of being fragile, tired of her own body not being able to keep up, tired of feeling uncomfortable in her own skin.

She still didn’t have any answers to why she was who, or what, she was, and she had somewhat accepted that she wouldn’t get those answers any time soon. But that didn’t make her any less frustrated.

“Doctor, we did everything we could,” Gemma spoke as she pulled at the Doctor’s sleeve to make him turn around. A storm of anger and guilt raged in his brown eyes and Gemma felt like wrapping her arms around him again.

But she couldn’t. The kiss at the hospital had crossed a line she didn’t want crossed and she needed to re-draw it fast. She hoped keeping some space between them would help with that. She didn’t even know why he had kissed her, but she was not about to ask either.

“I could’ve done more. I was trying so hard not to get involved and now a child is dead because of it.”

“You also saved a thousand people. People, who might go out and do amazing things only because you were there,” Gemma countered and the corners of her mouth curved upwards as she thought about Martha.

It hadn’t escaped her notice that her friend wasn’t with them and she doubted the Doctor had left her somewhere in the TARDIS on her own. Maybe she was just packing her things and then they would go and pick her up. Because this had to be it. This had to be the day Martha started travelling with the Doctor.

“Now, come on. It’s time to go pick up Martha,” Gemma said as she noticed the Doctor’s eyes soften and she quickly turned away.

Grabbing the Doctor’s hand, she pulled him with her back to the console room. She wasn’t sure where it was, but trusted the TARDIS to lead her there.

“Martha? Why are we picking up Martha?” the Doctor asked in a confused tone when they stepped into the console room and Gemma crossed her arms in front of her, leaning back against the console.

“Well, she’s coming with us, isn’t she?”

“No,” the Doctor simply replied and Gemma gaped at him as he darted around the console, pulling levers and pressing buttons.

“What d’you mean ‘no’? She was amazing at the hospital, she deserves this. And you need someone to travel with,” Gemma argued as she followed the Doctor around the console and she almost walked into him when he suddenly spun around to face her.

“I’ve got you. I don’t need anyone else,” the Doctor told her with a smile, which quickly faded when Gemma didn’t return it. Instead she watched him with a thoughtful expression and tilted her head slightly as her eyes flickered across his face.

“How long have you been travelling alone?”

The Doctor looked taken aback by her question and turned his back on her as he continued his pacing around the console. At this point Gemma wasn’t sure he was actually taking them anywhere.

This time she only followed him with her eyes and a worried frown creased her forehead as she watched him work. He had said it himself that he had been wandering about, waiting for her, when he had noticed the plasma coils. But for how long had he waited?

She remembered him mentioning them being at the Battle of Canary Wharf to Martha, and herself thinking that they had lost someone. A travelling companion, perhaps. Someone like Martha, who had unwittingly been pulled into their life and then left it just as suddenly.

“Doctor?” Gemma called when he didn’t respond and her voice made him pause as he looked at her from across the console.

“A month or so, nothing much.”

“It is when you’re grieving,” Gemma said, her voice almost a whisper, as she moved around the console to stand beside the Doctor. For a moment, he looked shocked by her words, but it quickly faded as he stared at his hands, which were gripping the console tightly.

“We lost someone, didn’t we? At Canary Wharf.”

“It’s still too early for you, Gemma. I can’t tell you.”

“I know. I also know that I’m not always here and I don’t want you to be alone,” Gemma told and placed a hand on top of his, making him look at her. “So for me, just for me if that’s what you want, take Martha with you. It doesn’t have to be more than one trip, or two if you like.”

“One trip,” the Doctor conceded with a pointed finger to emphasize it would only be one and a bright smile spread on Gemma’s face.

Her happiness made the Doctor grin as well and he pressed a brief kiss to her forehead before he started running around the console once again.

“First things first, though. Can we stop by my apartment?”

“Of course. Allons-y!”

The TARDIS started shaking as it took off and Gemma grabbed the console as to not fall. A few seconds later they had landed and Gemma stepped into her apartment. It was more than strange seeing the TARDIS parked in the middle of her living room.

“Just give me like half an hour,” she called to the Doctor, who was still inside the TARDIS and then started going through her apartment.

Gemma was surprised to discover it looked just like when she had left it, when she had been called to work by UNIT, and looking at her mobile phone she found out that it was only a day after she had left with the Doctor. The TARDIS must have chosen the date.

She wrote a brief text to 2009-Martha, telling her to come eat her food before it spoiled and threw out what was already over its due date. It took her ten minutes to make the kitchen somewhat presentable, but she didn’t bother with the rest of the mess in her apartment. Not that she was a messy person, but she hadn’t had time to clean for some time now.

Fifteen minutes later she had speed-packed a suitcase and a large tote bag, which she had filled with clothes, shoes and a few personal items she wanted to take with her.

It was mainly just a few framed pictures, her laptop and a thin diamond bracelet Charles had given her in a different life. She knew he thought her long dead and she had moved on as well, but it still carried a lot of memories and she had never been able to let it go.

She unwittingly let out a sigh as she clasped it around her wrist and shook her head before leaving her bedroom with her bags.

Gemma couldn’t help but notice her Harry Potter books still sitting on her book shelf, but figured she would come back for at least one of them some other time. She had to lend the last one to the Doctor after all.

After one last look at her apartment, she stepped back into the TARDIS and she couldn’t help but laugh to herself, when she saw the Doctor reading the last pages of her book with a misty look in his eyes.

“Did you cry?” she asked with a teasing smile as she dropped her bags to the floor and leaned against the console.

“What kind of name is Albus Severus?” the Doctor asked instead of answering her question and closed the book after having read the last lines.

“Yeah, we don’t talk about that one.” Gemma cringed before clapping her hands together as she turned to the console.

“Hey! You got a new screwdriver!” she exclaimed happily, when a metallic cylinder suddenly popped out of the console and the Doctor grinned as he picked it up and threw it into the air. “Martha it is then.”

Once again the TARDIS shook as they took off and Gemma ran to the door, when they landed moments later. It was night and the Doctor had parked the TARDIS in an alley. Gemma shared a startled look with the Doctor as they heard screaming coming from around the corner and they both walked towards the noise.

They paused as they made it to the main street and saw Martha standing outside a bar. Several people stood around her, all yelling at each other, and one by one they suddenly walked off, leaving Martha to herself.

Gemma waved when Martha caught sight of them and followed the Doctor back into the alley when Martha strode towards them. Martha let out a small laugh, when she found the pair leaning against a blue police box.

“I went to the Moon today.”

“A bit more peaceful than down here,” the Doctor joked and Gemma nudged him in the side. It was a bit rude to make fun of Martha’s family problems.

“You never even told me who you are.”

“The Doctor.”

“Gemma Chesterton.”

“What sort of species?” Martha questioned as she glanced between Gemma and the Doctor, sensing that the previous tension between them seemed to have disappeared. “It's not every day I get to ask that.”

“I'm a Time Lord,” the Doctor told her while Gemma remained quiet since she didn’t know how to answer.

“Right! Not pompous at all, then,” Martha spoke sarcastically, making Gemma press her lips together in amusement.

“We were thinking that since you were such a great help at the hospital, you might fancy a trip?” Gemma suggested with a warm smile and Martha looked at them in surprise.

“What, into space?”

“Well.”

“But I can't. I've got exams. I've got things to do. I have to go into town first thing and pay the rent, I've got my family going mad,” Martha started ranting before they could tell her about the time travelling part and Gemma bit into her lower lip to hide a smile.

“If it helps, we can travel in time as well.”

“Get out of here,” Martha told the Doctor without even considering the possibility that he was telling the truth. She almost looked annoyed with them.  

“We can.”

“Come on now, that's going too far.”

“We'll prove it,” Gemma insisted when she suddenly remembered what Martha had told them before examining the Doctor. She had met them in the street where Gemma had taken off the Doctor’s tie.

Gemma pulled the Doctor with her into the TARDIS and not long after they were walking down a busy London street, looking for Martha. It was morning, before the hospital disappeared, but Gemma tried not to think about it as she caught sight of Martha talking on her phone.

They stopped right in front of her as she hung up and there was a shocked expression on her face as Gemma pulled at the Doctor’s tie.

“Like so,” the Doctor told Martha as he let Gemma pull the tie over his head.

“See?” Gemma said as she showed Martha the tie before they both strode off. She couldn’t help but smile brightly as they landed back in the alley and stepped out of the TARDIS.

“Told you,” the Doctor spoke with a look at a shocked Martha before turning to Gemma, who pulled the tie back over his head and tightened it around his neck.

“No, but, that was this morning. Did you?” Martha exclaimed as Gemma casually straightened the Doctor’s collar. “Oh, my God. You can travel in time. But hold on. If you could see me this morning, why didn't you tell me not to go in to work?”

“Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden.”

“Except for cheap tricks,” Gemma added with a smile and stepped to the side when Martha moved closer to the TARDIS.

“And that's your spaceship?” Martha questioned as she reached out to touch the police box.

“It's called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space.”

“Your spaceship's made of wood,” Martha told them with an unimpressed look at the blue box and Gemma felt silly even as she patted the TARDIS comfortingly. “There's not much room. We'd be a bit intimate.”

Gemma raised an eyebrow at the suggestive tone in Martha’s voice, but didn’t think much of it. Martha had never been a big flirt, but she was right after all. The TARDIS did seem rather snug from the outside.

“Take a look,” the Doctor instructed as he pushed open the door and Martha hesitated for only a moment before stepping inside. She didn’t make it far as she stopped after a couple of steps, and Gemma and the Doctor watched her with a smile as they followed her.

“No, no, no,” Martha stammered in shock and quickly backed out of the TARDIS to run around it, checking if she had missed something.

“I love this bit,” the Doctor muttered to Gemma as they waited for Martha to come back.

“I’ve never seen this bit. Think she’s gonna say it?”

Gemma got her answer as Martha appeared at the door, but without going back inside.

“But it's just a box. But it's huge. How does it do that?” Martha exclaimed and knocked on the outside of the TARDIS before joining them inside. “It's wood. It's like a box with that room just rammed in. It's bigger on the inside.”

Gemma rolled her eyes as the Doctor mouthed the words ‘bigger on the inside’ as Martha said them out loud. It was the first time Gemma had seen the reaction of a new companion entering the TARDIS and she couldn’t help but feel a little excited on behalf of Martha. 

“Is it? I hadn't noticed,” the Doctor spoke sarcastically as he closed the TARDIS doors and Gemma frowned at his back as he shrugged off his jacket and ran to the console. “Right then, let's get going.”

If Gemma didn’t know better she would think that he was annoyed by Martha’s presence. As if he wanted her one thank-you-trip over and done with.

“But is there a crew, like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?” Martha asked with wide eyes as she followed Gemma to the console and gestured at the room with her arms.

“Just us,” the Doctor told her without looking up as he got the TARDIS ready to fly off. He even ignored Gemma as she stared at him from across the room with her head tilted in thought.

“All on your own?”

“Well, sometimes we have guests. I mean some friends, travelling alongside,” the Doctor explained as he kept working by the console, but he briefly glanced at Gemma before continuing. “We had. There was recently, a friend of ours. Anyway…”

Gemma listened quietly as the Doctor talked about the friend they had lost and a strange feeling of guilt settled in her gut over not being sad like the Doctor was. Gemma knew she would experience the loss on her own one day, but right now she could only watch the Doctor grieve over someone she didn’t know yet.

“Where is she now?” Martha asked in a sympathetic voice as she moved towards the Doctor, and Gemma held her breath as she waited for his answer.

“With her family, happy. She's fine,” the Doctor replied while nodding his head as if to assure himself that it was the truth and his eyes caught Gemma’s, telling her the same thing. He then turned to Martha with a pointed finger. “Not that you're replacing her.”

“Doctor,” Gemma warned quietly as she joined Martha and the Doctor at the console, but they both ignored her.

“Never said I was,” Martha quipped with a shake of her head, but didn’t seem deterred by the Doctor’s rudeness.

“Just one trip to say thanks. You get one trip, then back home,” the Doctor informed in a harsh tone that made Gemma glare at him. ”You’re only here because of Gemma.”

“Doctor!” Gemma exclaimed as they moved around the console in opposite directions, meeting halfway where the Doctor paused to fiddle with the controls. Gemma knew it was only because she had begged him that Martha was now in the TARDIS, but he didn’t have to be purposely rude.   

“You're the one that kissed me,” Martha then called softly from behind the Doctor and he sent Gemma a look saying ‘this is your fault’. Gemma was too shocked by Martha’s flirting to notice and her cheeks heated up as she was reminded of the Doctor kissing her as well.  

“That was a genetic transfer,” the Doctor told Martha in a stern voice, but that didn’t seem to stop her and Gemma frowned as Martha’s eyes glided over the Doctor’s body.

“And if you’ll wear a tight suit.”

“Stop it,” the Doctor chastised with a finger pointed at Martha and the woman’s teasing smile fell as she glanced between the Doctor and Gemma, who was looking uncomfortable with Martha’s flirting.

“For the record? I'm not remotely interested. I only go for humans,” Martha told the Doctor with a tilt of her head and then sent Gemma a smile. “And it’s not like I’m gonna come between the two of you.”

Gemma opened her mouth to protest Martha’s insinuation, but a tell-tale tingling made her look down at her hands. The golden dust was back and Gemma closed her eyes as she took a deep breath.

“What’s that? What’s happening to her?” Martha questioned in a frightened voice and the Doctor spun around to look at Gemma, who was being quickly enveloped by the time vortex.

“Behave,” Gemma ordered him with a pointed look and she heard Martha gasp loudly just before she disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the kudos! And to the person, who commented: I hope this satisfy you;)


	6. The War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Mum and dad once told me that you and Susan stole the TARDIS,” Gemma said.
> 
> “Borrowed it. I borrowed it,” the Doctor corrected.
> 
> “I think ‘borrowed’ implies the intent to give it back.” She laughed, but fell silent when she realized that there no longer was anyone to give it back to. Just like the Doctor, the TARDIS was the last of its kind.
> 
> “Will you tell me about them? The Time Lords and Gallifrey?” Gemma asked quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for The Doctor's Daughter - episode 06x4

Gemma inhaled sharply as she landed in the TARDIS and held out her arms to maintain her balance. She grinned happily, when she managed to stay on her feet without stumbling and turned her head to check if anyone had seen. It was the same TARDIS interior she had just left, but it was empty.

“Hello?” Gemma called out as she spun around and stopped, when it made her dizzy. She winced slightly when she stretched her body and felt a familiar soreness in her limbs. At least it felt marginally better than the last time.

“Anyone here?” she tried as she moved around the console room and pressed a couple of buttons to turn on one of the screens hanging over the console. “Doctor?”

Her search was answered by the TARDIS, who hummed at her question, telling her that she was alone.

“Is it safe outside?” Gemma questioned as she pointed at the doors and the TARDIS hummed once more, this time telling her yes. “Thanks.”

She hadn’t gotten the screen to work and figured she would just have to improvise if the Doctor wasn’t right outside. Of course, she could also just stay in the TARDIS, but she really didn’t want to. Not all alone.

Gemma paused as she wrapped her hand around the door handle and then took a deep breath before pulling it open.

Her heart jumped to her throat as she stepped outside and was met by several guns being pointed at her. Guns being held by fish-like people, who seemed to breathe through a cylinder of some green liquid.

“No, no, no! Don’t shoot!” a voice exclaimed to the left of Gemma and she turned her head to find Martha standing with her hands in the air. “She’s my friend. Good friend. She won’t do anything.”

Gemma quickly stepped out of the TARDIS, closing the door behind her, and walked over to Martha with her hands lifted in the air.

“I promise I come in peace,” Gemma assured the fish people and they eyed her for a moment longer before lowering their guns.

At the same time Gemma and Martha lowered their arms and then turned towards each other. Having just experienced Martha flirt with the Doctor, Gemma couldn’t decide how to act towards her friend, but Martha just smiled brightly and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Am I glad to see you.” Martha laughed as she pulled back from the hug and Gemma smiled as she realized she was standing in front of her own Martha. The Martha she worked with at UNIT, her best friend.

“What happened? Where are we?” Gemma asked as she looked around searchingly, finding that they were standing in a large tunnel. It looked like it had collapsed in the middle, giving them only one direction to go, and there was rubble all around them.

“I’m not exactly sure. The Doctor and Donna were taking me home after the whole Sontaran incident and the TARDIS brought us here. Then we were surrounded by soldiers, human soldiers, and then they showed up,” Martha explained and gestured with her head towards the fish people.

“I was separated from Donna and the Doctor, when the soldiers blew up the tunnel to kill the fish people.”

“The TARDIS was empty when I got here, so I thought I’d take a look outside. And then there were fish people,” Gemma told as she stared at the fish people, who were gesturing for Martha and Gemma to follow them.

The two women shared a brief look before they started walking through the rubble. There were about five fish people in front of them and two behind them. They didn’t have their guns pointed at her anymore, but Gemma still felt nervous.

“I think they’re called the Hath,” Martha muttered to her as they walked down the tunnel. “One of the human soldiers said so.”

“You think they’re friendly?”

“They haven’t shot us yet.”  

“And where are Donna and the Doctor?”

“With the humans, I think. They did this weird thing where they took the Doctor’s DNA and basically just created a new human being out of it. The Doctor said she was his daughter.”

“I’m sorry, what? His daughter?” Gemma exclaimed with wide eyes and quickly quieted down, when a nearby Hath gurgled at her. “How is that possible?”

“The Doctor called it progenation. And something about diploid cells being split into haploids to grow a new human being.” 

“So there’s like a female Doctor now?”

“Well, if we don’t count you.”

“Count me? Why would we count me?”

“How early is this for you?” Martha asked with a frown as she noticed something about Gemma was off.

“You just met the Doctor and me for the first time,” Gemma told her with a smile, but was surprised by Martha’s reaction.

“Oh, my God. Gemma, I’m really sorry. I can’t believe I flirted with the Doctor right in front of you,” Martha ranted with an embarrassed look in her eyes and didn’t seem able to meet Gemma’s gaze.

“Martha, it’s fine.” Gemma laughed with a shake of her head and didn’t understand why Martha had suddenly become flustered.

“And the kiss!”

“The kiss? What kiss?” Gemma stammered as she for a second thought Martha might know that the Doctor had kissed her and the other woman narrowed her eyes at her.

“When the Doctor kissed me at the hospital. The genetic transfer and all that, remember?”

“Right, that kiss.”

“What do you mean _that_ kiss? Is there another kiss I don’t know about?” Martha asked with a lifted eyebrow and Gemma felt herself blush.

“No. No other kisses. No one’s kissing anybody.”

“The Doctor kissed you, didn’t he?” Martha questioned with an amused laugh and Gemma pressed her lips together as she nodded. “I can’t believe you haven’t told me that sooner!”

“It just happened to me! Besides, it didn’t mean anything.”

“Oh please, there’s definitely something between you and the Doctor. Right from when I first met the two of you.”

“There’s not, okay? There never will be. It’s too complicated, anyway,” Gemma told in a stern tone and looked away, when Martha sent her a sad smile. 

Gemma was happy when their conversation ended as they made it to the Hath base and two doors slid to the sides to reveal a room filled with more Haths. The room looked strange, like it had once been part of a large mansion or museum, and a white marble statue of a human man stood in the middle surrounded by machines.

Gemma reached out for Martha’s hand as they were led into the room and one of the Hath gurgled as the other Haths gathered around them. The two women didn’t understand what was being said and shot each other a nervous look as the Hath closed in on them.

Martha grabbed Gemma’s hand tighter when the Hath reached out for them, and they both remained still as the Hath started caressing their hair and grabbing their shoulders as if they were thanking them.

“What did you do?” Gemma whispered to Martha as a hand brushed her shoulder and she smiled at the Hath despite her discomfort.

“I just fixed a dislocated shoulder.”

“Well, it seems you have made a new best friend, Doctor Jones,” Gemma said with a nod towards the Hath, who had spoken to the others and was now ushering them away to give the women some space.

The Hath then led them over to a holographic map of the tunnels and chambers surrounding them and Gemma looked over her shoulder to see the other Haths watching expectantly. Martha’s friend kept gurgling as if he was trying to tell them something and Gemma shrugged, when Martha sent her a confused look.

“Right,” Martha spoke as if she understood the Hath and pointed at a chamber on the map. “So we’re here.”

The Haths looked slightly disappointed as Martha had only pointed out the obvious and were about to walk away, when the map suddenly changed.

“Hold on, look,” Martha called out, bringing the Haths back to stand beside them and Gemma leaned forward to get a closer look at the extended map.

It was as if something, or someone, had unlocked a different level of the map. She had a good guess as to who that someone was.

“That's a new map. There's a different set of tunnels,” Martha spoke excitedly and grinned at Gemma, who glanced around at the gurgling Haths.

Gemma’s own smile fell, when they started raising their guns in celebration and she turned to Martha, who was trying to tell the Hath she hadn’t been the one to unlock the map. Worry shone from her eyes as they met Gemma’s and they both turned to look at the map.

“Martha, I think we’ve just started a war.”

Martha gulped as she came to the same conclusion and they watched silently as the Hath scattered to prepare for what was to come. Gemma’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, when Martha’s phone suddenly rang and Martha quickly answered, when she saw the unfamiliar number.

“Doctor?” Martha questioned with wide eyes and smiled at Gemma, whose eyes lit up at the name.

“ _Martha, you're alive!_ ” the Doctor exclaimed happily and Martha removed the phone from her ear to put it on speaker.

“Doctor! Oh, am I glad to hear your voice. Are you all right?”

“ _I'm with Donna. We're fine. What about you?_ ” the Doctor spoke in a rapid pace and Gemma could hear how stressed he had been over Martha’s disappearance. This was far from the way he had acted towards her in the TARDIS, when Martha had first joined them.  

“ _And Jenny. She's fine too,_ ” a female voice added in the background and Gemma figured it was Donna even though she didn’t know who Jenny was.

“ _Yes, all right. And, and Jenny. That's the woman from the machine. The soldier. My daughter, except she isn't, she's, she's… Anyway, where are you?_ ” the Doctor told hesitantly and it was obvious that he for some reason didn’t like Jenny.

“I'm in the Hath camp with Gemma,” Martha replied with a glance at Gemma and opened her mouth to continue, when the Doctor interrupted her.

“ _Gemma’s there? You didn’t tell me Gemma is there. Always start with ‘Gemma is here’._ ”

“Geez, okay. Gemma is here. She’s fine, by the way.”

“I’m fine,” Gemma echoed and rolled her eyes at Martha, who was watching her with a meaningful look as if the Doctor’s worry told her everything she needed to know. 

“ _Gemma,_ ” the Doctor breathed with a relieved sigh and Gemma wondered if he had been waiting for her to show up. “ _When did you get here?_ ”

“Not long after the tunnel collapsed, I think. I was just on the Moon with Martha.”

“ _It’s early for you then._ ”

“It is,” Gemma replied with a frown and thought that he sounded disappointed. As if he had wished for an older and different Gemma to be there. “Is there another Gemma you’d rather talk to?”

“ _Gemma, love-_ “

“Look, something's going on here,” Gemma interrupted before the Doctor could explain himself and looked away, when she noticed Martha staring at her. “The Hath are all marching off to some place that appeared on this holographic map they have in their base.”  

“ _Oh, that was me,_ ” the Doctor told in a regretful voice, making Gemma scoff.

“Yeah, I figured.”

“ _If both armies are heading that way, there's going to be a bloodbath._ ”

“What do you want us to do?” Martha asked and glanced around to find that almost all of the Haths had left. The only one remaining was the Hath with the dislocated shoulder.

“ _Just stay where you are. If you're safe there, don't move, do you hear?_ ” the Doctor ordered them and Gemma sighed as that was something she definitely did not feel like doing. Martha and she had been trained by UNIT for situations like this. Not to sit on their asses.

“But we can help,” Martha objected but was cut off mid-sentence as the call suddenly ended. “Doctor? Doctor?”

“What happened?” Gemma asked as Martha stared down at her dead phone.

“It ran out of battery,” she told and turned towards the remaining Hath, who was staring at the holographic map. “I need to charge my phone up. I need power. Do you understand?”

The Hath gurgled once and then turned the disc projecting the map, which suddenly appeared in 3D.

“There's even more? In 3D. Oh, you're a clever Hath,” Martha exclaimed and Gemma quickly joined her to get a look at the map as well. “So this is where everybody's headed? But look, those tunnels sort of zig-zag. If we went up and over the surface in a straight line, we'd get there first.”

Martha looked at Gemma to see if she agreed with her plan, but was distracted by the Hath who gurgled in protest.

“Why not?”

The Hath made a graph appear on top of the map and Gemma studied the readings with a frown.

“If we just get back inside within thirty minutes time, I’d say we’ll be fine. There are some big radiation spikes, but it shouldn’t be a problem as long as we don’t get stuck up there,” Gemma concluded with a tilt of her head and Martha nodded in agreement.

“We have to find our friends,” Martha told the Hath, when it once again gurgled in protest and Gemma wondered if Martha was actually beginning to understand him or if she was just guessing.

Another gurgle stopped them as they ran off and Martha turned to look at the Hath with a smile.

“Come on, then.”

Martha and Gemma ran through narrow tunnels with the Hath on their heels as they looked for the hatch they had seen on the map. Gemma was first up the stairs that would lead them outside and worked on opening the hatch as Martha looked at the scared Hath at the bottom of the stairs.

“You can stay down here and live your whole life in the shadows, or come with us and stand in the open air. Feel the wind on your face. What's it going to be? It's up to you. But nothing's going to stop us.”

Gemma groaned as she managed to push open the heavy hatch and a cold, strong wind hit her face as she lifted herself out of the hole. Her teeth started clattering as she helped Martha to the surface as well and the Hath followed soon after.

“I knew you couldn't resist it,” Martha grinned at the Hath as she quickly buttoned her jacket, trying to shield herself against the cold. Gemma was only in her knee-length dress she had worn at the hospital, which didn’t provide much warmth and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

“Er, language,” Martha told the Hath, when it gurgled in excitement, and then quickly led them forward as she noticed Gemma tremble against the cold wind. “Come on.”

They all had their eyes fixed on the ground beneath as they walked across the rocky surface of the planet, trying not to fall in the dark. The only light they had was from three moons hanging in the sky.

“It can't be much further,” Martha yelled over the wind after ten minutes and Gemma didn’t notice her friend move too close to the edge of a slope as she spied after the building they were looking for.  

Martha’s scream almost made her fall as well, but the Hath grabbed her arm.

“Martha!” Gemma cried out as she watched her friend roll down the slope and fall into a black pool of bubbling liquid.

“Help me!” Martha yelled as she tried to crawl out of the pool, only to be dragged back down. Gemma was only halfway down the slope, when the Hath reached Martha.

“I'm sinking! I'm sinking, help me! Help me! Help me, I'm sinking!” Martha screamed as she reached out for the Hath’s hand, but it couldn’t get to her without leaving the solid ground.

“Take my hand!” Gemma yelled to the Hath as she reached the bottom and the Hath quickly did was they were told, leaning over the edge of the pool to get to Martha. It still wasn’t enough and Gemma screamed at the Hath as they let go of her and jumped into the pool.  

Gemma used all of her strength to pull Martha out of the pool as the Hath managed to push her towards solid ground, and she held on to Martha as the Hath slowly sank.

“Oh, no! No!” Martha screamed as they watched the Hath disappear under the surface and she buried her face in Gemma’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, Martha,” Gemma whispered even though her voice was drowned by the wind and she lifted Martha to her feet with some difficulty. “We have to keep moving.”

It took them five minutes to crawl back to the top of the slope, but not even the exercise brought any warmth to Gemma’s body and her muscles were locking up, making it harder to move.

“Martha, we’re here!” she yelled over her shoulder, when they finally made it to the building and she found a slide door. There was a button beside the door, which she quickly pressed, and they were finally in shelter.

Gemma was still freezing and was afraid she might get hypothermia if she didn’t find some heat soon. Martha didn’t look much better, but they forced themselves to continue.

Gemma wasn’t sure where they were going but followed Martha, who seemed to get more clear-headed as she slowly got some body heat back. Gemma felt like she was cold to her very bones.

Gemma jumped in surprise when Martha rounded a corner before her and suddenly screamed in excitement as she ran forward.

“Doctor!”

“Martha!” the Doctor yelled as he caught Martha in his arms and lifted her off the ground. “Oh, I should have known you wouldn't stay away from the excitement.”

“Where’s Gemma?” he then asked with a frown as he let go of Martha, who moved on to hug Donna.

“Why? Did you miss me?” Gemma questioned and smiled as the Doctor spun around to look at her.

She let out a small yelp as she was swooped off the ground, but wrapped her arms tightly around the Doctor’s neck as his wrapped around her waist. She sighed when she felt the heat of his body against hers, but it didn’t stop her from trembling as her muscles tensed.

“You’re shaking,” the Doctor muttered into her hair and hugged her closer, when he felt how cold she was. “What happened?”

“Oh, you're filthy. What happened?” Donna asked at the same time as she took a look at Martha, who was covered in dirt and whatever the pool of black liquid had been made of.   

“We took the surface route. It was bloody cold,” Gemma told as she released her hold on the Doctor, so he would put her down.

She immediately missed his body heat and sent the Doctor a grateful smile, when he pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was much too long, but she was desperate for any kind of warmth.

“Hi, Donna,” Gemma greeted as she walked over to the other woman, who pulled her into a brief hug.

“It’s a bit weird seeing you here after the last time,” Donna told with a smile and rubbed her hands up and down Gemma’s arms to provide some heat.

“It hasn’t actually been that long for me. No more than a few days since we stepped into the TARDIS.”

“How many times have you jumped since then?”

“Four times, I think. I’m still getting used to it.”

“Jumped? Where did you jump?” a new voice asked curiously from beside her and Gemma turned to find a young, blonde woman staring at her.

“You must be Jenny,” Gemma said with a smile and looked at the girl, trying to find any similarities between her and the Doctor. “And I jumped through time. It’s a thing I do.”

“Through time? Are you a Time Lord as well?” Jenny asked with an excited smile and took a step towards Gemma, who shook her head with a small laugh.

“Positions,” a gruff voice ordered from somewhere beneath them, cutting their reunion short.

“That's the General. We haven't got much time,” the Doctor said as they all turned to look at him, uncertain of what to do next.

“We don't even know what we're looking for,” Donna pointed out and Gemma wondered what had led the others to the same place as Martha and her.

“Is it me, or can you smell flowers?” Martha then asked as she glanced around and Gemma sniffed the air, noticing the sweet aroma hanging in the air.

“Yes. Bougainvillea,” the Doctor said while the General’s voice could be heard from underneath them, and he grabbed Gemma’s hand. “I say we follow our nose.”

The four women followed the Doctor as he led them up the stairs to the next level. A couple of minutes later they had reached their destination and Gemma could feel warmth return to her body as they stepped into a large room filled with plants and flowers.

“Oh, yes. Yes. Isn't this brilliant?” The Doctor grinned as he walked to the middle of the room, where a glowing orb was placed on a pedestal.  

“Is that the Source?” Donna asked as they all paused to stare at the orb and Gemma realized that this was what they had been looking for. It was probably also the thing the Hath and humans was waging war over.  

“It's beautiful,” Gemma and Jenny spoke at the same time and Gemma smiled at the girl, who looked at her in surprise. Neither of them noticed the Doctor staring at them with a smile of his own.

“What is it?” Martha asked as they all moved closer to the orb and Gemma leaned in to look at the fluctuating light inside of it.

“Terraforming. It's a third generation terraforming device.”

“So why are we suddenly in Kew Gardens?” Donna asked with a confused look at the plants surrounding them.

“Because that's what it does. All this, only bigger. Much bigger. It's in a transit state. Producing all this must help keep it stable before they finally-“

Two loud bangs interrupted the Doctor and Gemma moved behind him as the Hath and the human soldiers ran into the room from opposite directions; their guns pointed at the Doctor and each other.

“Stop! Hold your fire!” the Doctor yelled as he placed himself in the middle of the two groups and held out his arms towards them.

“What is this, some kind of trap?” the General asked with his gun pointed at the Doctor, and Gemma felt Martha’s hand wrap around her arm as if the other woman was afraid Gemma might step in front of the gun. At the moment she wasn’t completely sure she wouldn’t.  

“You said you wanted this war over,” the Doctor reminded the General in a calm voice, hoping to keep him from firing at the Hath, but the General didn’t agree.

“I want this war won.”

“You can't win. No one can. You don't even know why you're here. Your whole history, it's just Chinese whispers, getting more distorted the more it's passed on,” the Doctor told the surrounding humans and Hath, turning around to face all of them.

“This is the Source,” he continued and gestured towards the glowing orb. Gemma could tell that everyone around them was listening intently and hoped they would all hold their fire long enough to understand what the Doctor was telling them.

“This is what you're fighting over. A device to rejuvenate a planet's ecosystem. It's nothing mystical. It's from a laboratory, not some creator. It's a bubble of gases. A cocktail of stuff for accelerated evolution. Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. It's used to make barren planets habitable.”

“Look around you,” the Doctor said with a gesture towards the surrounding plants, and several guns lowered to point at the ground. “It's not for killing, it's bringing life. If you allow it, it can lift you out of these dark tunnels and into the bright, bright sunlight. No more fighting, no more killing.”

“I'm the Doctor,” he spoke as he picked up the globe, “and I declare this war is over.”

Everyone watched in astonishment as the Doctor smashed the globe on the ground and the light inside of it lifted into the air to form a golden cloud above their heads. Gemma smiled as she watched everyone put their guns down and then turned to look at Jenny, who had walked up to the Doctor.

“What's happening?”

“The gases will escape and trigger the terraforming process,” the Doctor explained as he glanced up at the cloud of gas and then smiled down at his daughter. Gemma felt herself get warmer just by the look on the Doctor’s face.

“What does that mean?”

“It means a new world.”

Gemma saw the General raise his gun towards the Doctor at the same time Jenny did and ran forward. She didn’t make it far as a gunshot pierced the newfound peace and Jenny fell to the ground, having taking the bullet intended for the Doctor.

“Jenny? Jenny. Talk to me, Jenny,” the Doctor called as he lowered the young woman to the ground with a hand behind her head. Donna and Martha quickly ran over and Martha took Jenny’s pulse.

“Is she going to be all right?” Donna asked Martha quietly, who shook her head and both women pulled away from the Doctor.  

It was then they noticed Gemma, who had run to the General and disarmed him of his gun. He was bleeding from his temple where Gemma had hit him with the butt of the gun and two of the soldiers had forced him to his knees.

“Gemma, don’t,” Donna called out to her, but was held back by Martha even as Gemma aimed the General’s gun at his head.

Gemma glanced at the two women over shoulder, but felt her anger flare up as she turned her eyes to Jenny and the Doctor. The young woman was dying in the Doctor’s arms and Gemma felt her heart break as she heard the Doctor tell Jenny to hold on.

Her vision was blurred by tears as she turned to glare at the General, having not lowered the gun for a moment.

“I could kill you right now and no one would blink.”

“Will you?” the General asked in a trembling voice and it felt slightly satisfying to see him so afraid.

But it also sobered her up. It made her realize that she was actually holding a loaded gun to a man’s head. He deserved to die for killing Jenny, but she couldn’t do it. She never would.

“No,” Gemma said in a calm voice as she clicked the safety back on and lowered the gun. “You’re not worth it.”

Gemma stared at the General for a moment longer before she turned away and walked towards the Doctor, who was carefully placing Jenny’s head on the ground.

She met his gaze without flinching as he stood up with rage shining from his eyes and she didn’t stop him as he walked past her, grabbing the gun out of her hand.

The Doctor aimed the gun at the General’s head just as Gemma had done, and he was breathing heavily as he stared down at the General, who remained mute.

It was obvious that he was more afraid of the Doctor than he had been of Gemma, but she knew the Doctor would never pull the trigger. After a few moments of bathed silence he lowered the gun and clicked the safety back on.

“I never would. Have you got that? I never would,” the Doctor sneered as he knelt down in front of the General and held the gun by the muzzle. He then stood up to address the Hath and the soldiers.

“When you start this new world, this world of Human and Hath, remember that. Make the foundation of this society a man who never would,” the Doctor yelled at them with tears in his eyes and threw the gun to the ground.

Gemma stepped aside as the Doctor strode past her, but she followed him back to Jenny’s body and knelt down beside him as he sat down, staring at the young woman.

“I wanted to shoot him,” Gemma whispered after some time had passed and looked at the Doctor, who kept his eyes focused on Jenny.

“Me too,” the Doctor said after a long moment of silence and turned his head to meet her gaze. His eyes were blank and emotionless, and Gemma rested her hand against his cheek.

“I’m sorry,” she told the Doctor quietly before she reached down to carefully brush a lock of hair out of Jenny’s face. “I’m so, so sorry.”

\--------

Sunlight streamed through the windows as they stood over Jenny, who was lying on a table looking as if she was asleep rather than dead. Martha and Donna stood on one side of the table while a Hath and a male soldier stood on the other. Gemma was by the Doctor’s side by the wall, her hand linked with his.

“It's happening,” Martha said as the light hit Jenny’s face and looked over at Gemma and the Doctor. “The terraforming.”

“Build a city, nice and safe underground, strip away the top soil and there it is. And what about Jenny?” Donna asked as she glanced down at the young woman, who was bathed in a warm light.  

“Let us give her a proper ceremony. I think it'd help us,” the soldier implored as he turned to the Doctor, casting a brief glance at the Hath beside him. “Please.”

Gemma shifted her eyes from Jenny to the Doctor as he nodded at the soldier and sent him a supportive smile, when he turned his head to look at her. Their eyes met for a long moment and Gemma felt a drop of relief, when she noticed a flicker of emotion in his.

She had been worried Jenny’s loss would make him distance himself from all of them. Or just close himself off just like he seemed to have done after the Canary Wharf and at the Starship UK, and maybe even send Donna home.

Breaking eye contact with the Doctor, she sent the soldier a grateful smile and then gestured at all of them to leave the room. None of them said a word as they walked out the door and Gemma squeezed the Doctor’s hand once before following.

“I thought you were gonna shoot him,” Donna spoke quietly as they waited for the Doctor outside the room, giving him a moment alone to say goodbye.

“So did I.” Gemma sighed and glanced at Donna and Martha, who shared a worried look. “But I couldn’t. I never would. Or am I wrong?”

They knew her after all, how she was in the future. Maybe, one day, she would be able to pull the trigger.

“You’re not,” Martha told her with a reassuring smile and Donna shook her head in agreement. “And because of UNIT I’ve gotten to know this version of you really well, so I knew you wouldn’t.”

“This version of me? What d’you mean _this_ version of me?” Gemma questioned with narrowed eyes, feeling herself grow annoyed.

She suddenly remembered the Doctor’s reaction to learning how early it still was for her and realized Martha and Donna might feel the same way.

Maybe they wished for an older version of her to be there. Someone who knew the Doctor better, someone who knew how to comfort him and actually had a clue what to do next.

Because, at this point in time, Gemma had no idea. She barely knew what to say to him and her mind was still preoccupied by their last adventure. Not only because of the kiss, but also because of his behavior towards Martha, which was nothing like the current one, and the loss he had suffered.

A loss she would suffer as well one day. Just like Donna, and Amy, would one day leave them. Someday she might be the one to grieve over someone the Doctor had not yet met.

“It’s just… you’re different from the Gemma we know. Not in a bad way, just younger. And we weren’t sure what you were thinking, when you pointed the gun at the General,” Donna told her softly, hoping to ease the frustration, which flickered through Gemma’s eyes.

“Then let me tell you. I am sad, really sad. But I don’t get to feel it, because the next thing I know I’m jumping through time and space, and then I have to be happy. Maybe the Doctor can’t know why I’m sad, because it hasn’t happened to him yet.

“Do you know how much this is gonna hurt, when I have to look him in the eye and pretend I didn’t just see Jenny die? Or how bad I feel, because we lost someone important and I have no idea who she was. And you do. I can see it in your eyes. But I still have all of that to come. I will have to meet that person, care for her, knowing that one day I’m gonna have to watch her leave. And it’s the same with all of you. I’ve been to the future and-“

“Gemma.”

Gemma’s outburst was interrupted by the Doctor’s voice and her mouth fell shut as she realized what she had been about to say. She didn’t know why Donna wasn’t with the Doctor in the future, but given the bowtie-wearing Doctor’s reaction, Donna probably hadn’t left willingly.

“I’m sorry,” she told her shocked audience, her voice trembling with emotion, and ran off before anyone could stop her.

The Hath and soldiers had cleared the tunnel, giving them access to the TARDIS, and Gemma didn’t think much of it as she pushed open the door without a key. The TARDIS hummed in greeting, but Gemma ignored it as she ran through the corridors, eventually finding the door to her bedroom.

She took a stuttering breath as she went inside, gliding down the door after closing it behind her. The light in the room was dimmed, seemingly matching Gemma’s mood, and she felt a brief moment of comfort as the TARDIS hummed again.

“I did something stupid,” Gemma told the TARDIS, when she managed to regain some control over herself and wiped away the tears that had fallen during her speech. She closed her eyes as she leaned her head against the door and took a deep breath.

“I hurt them, Martha and Donna. I yelled at them and I almost revealed the future, Donna’s future. And the Doctor… he was so disappointed in me. I could tell. The way he looked at me. If he hadn’t stopped me I would have told them. How in the future Donna is gone and how Amy will someday be replaced by Clara, and I don’t even know who comes after her. And Martha. I begged the Doctor to take her with us, even though I know something bad happened to her. And one day I’m gonna watch her go through all of that pain, knowing that I put her in harm’s way.”

The TARDIS hummed in response and Gemma laughed dryly.

“I don’t think being tired and cold is a good enough excuse for what I said. I think it was just days’ worth of pent-up frustration that finally got to me. And instead of screaming into a pillow I took it out on Martha and Donna.”

The TARDIS hummed again and Gemma let out a long sigh as she pulled the Doctor’s coat, which was still hanging on her shoulders, tighter around her.

“I don’t think the Doctor wants to hear anything I have to say right now,” Gemma spoke quietly as she flicked up the collar of the coat and turned her head to the left, burying her nose in it. She took a deep breath and felt herself relax as the Doctor’s scent enveloped her.

“Oi! Don’t you start as well,” Gemma chastised the TARDIS when it hummed, teasing her, and a blush coloured Gemma’s cheeks as she got off the floor and threw the coat on her bed. “And I’m not gonna discuss the Doctor with you. You’ll just tell on me.”  

Gemma rolled her eyes in amusement, when the TARDIS hummed in offense and paused, when she noticed the bags from her apartment on the floor. She had left them in the console room before they went to get Martha and wasn’t sure how they had ended up in her room. Unless the Doctor had somehow been granted access while she wasn’t there.

Shrugging it off, she started unpacking her things to occupy herself and didn’t know how much time had passed when she finally finished. She knew she had to leave her room at some point, but still needed more time to clear her head. 

Gemma made a grimace as she walked into her bathroom and stared at the pale woman in the mirror. Her hair was a mess of wavy curls and she had dark circles under her eyes. The brightness of her green eyes had dimmed and they were slightly red from crying.

She ignored the mirror as she undressed herself and stepped into the bath she prepared. Gemma’s eyes fell shut as she emptied her brain of thoughts and when she opened them again an hour later, the water had turned cold and she was freezing again. 

With a sigh she got out of the bathtub and spent a few minutes in the shower, washing her hair and getting warm again. Gemma dressed herself in a pair of black jeans and a beige, oversized jumper.

She didn’t bother putting on make-up and let her blow-dried hair hang down her back. It felt nice being back in her own clothes and she stepped into her brown ballerinas before finally leaving her room.

She wasn’t sure who or what she was searching for as she walked through the empty corridors, but knew that she had to talk to the Doctor sooner or later. And apologize to Donna, and Martha if she was still there.

She decided later, when she stepped into the library and took in the high-ceilinged room with a growing smile. Books filled the walls from the floor to the ceiling and she let her fingers glide over the spines of the books as she walked through the room.

A thick book caught her attention at the end of the book shelf and she pulled it from its place, mouthing its title, which read _Gallifreyan History I_. The book was heavy in her hands and she carried it with her to a comfy sofa that was stood in the middle of the room.

Gemma flipped the book open to a random page and started reading. Intricate circular figures were drawn around the edge of the pages and it took a moment for Gemma to recognize them. She had seen them on the discs spinning around the console in the Grey Doctor’s TARDIS. It was Gallifreyan, the Time Lords’ language.

“I was wondering when you were gonna show up,” the Doctor’s voice suddenly called from the other end of the room and Gemma’s heart jumped in surprise as she immediately closed the book in her hands.

She wasn’t sure why she had done it, but reading it had kind of felt like snooping and she didn’t want the Doctor to have more reasons to be angry with her.

“You scared me,” Gemma breathed with a forced smile and watched as the Doctor strode towards her.

She was confused by the worried expression on his face as he came closer and she looked down at the book in her hands as he sat down beside her.

“So did you, when you just ran off,” the Doctor told her in a soft voice, which made Gemma frown as she continued to stare at the cover of the book. She wasn’t sure why he wasn’t already scolding her for what she had said.

“I’m sorry. I just… I snapped. I never meant to say any of those things out loud, but then I started and suddenly I couldn’t stop again.”

“Gemma,” the Doctor spoke as he tried to make her look at him, but her eyes remained fixed on the book. Gemma blinked in surprise, when he grabbed her chin and turned her head towards him, forcing her to meet his gaze.

“Gemma, It’s okay, there’s no harm done. But you can’t let something like this build-up. You need to tell me.”

“How?” she asked as she turned her head out of the Doctor’s hold and carefully placed the book in her hands on the floor. 

Gemma pulled her feet on to the sofa and turned around to face the Doctor, bending her legs towards her chest as she rested against the armrest behind her. Without realizing it she started playing with the diamond bracelet around her wrist and took a deep breath before continuing.

“Because I’ve been with you for a few days at most and I’ve barely even had time to actually think about all of this myself. Time to accept the fact that I’m not fully human and you won’t tell me what that means. Time to realise that from now on you will be the only constant in my life and I barely even know you.”

“Gemma,” the Doctor spoke as he reached out for her hand, but paused when Gemma pulled it towards herself, not letting him touch her. She found it hard to meet his gaze, when she noticed the hurt look that crossed his face.

“Just let me talk, okay? You wanted me to talk, so please just listen,” Gemma implored as she stared into the brown eyes of the Doctor. Eyes which were so different from the other regenerations she had met and yet completely the same; filled with pain and knowledge, and so, so old.

“All I really know about you is what I’ve read and what I’ve been told. I know the Doctor, the legendary hero and defender of Earth. The madman with a time machine, whom my parents once travelled with,” Gemma continued with a hint of a smile, when the Doctor nodded and leaned back, signaling he was listening.

“And I’m only just starting to learn for myself who you are. Because yes, you are all of those things, but also so much more. And I’ve seen it already and I’ll admit some of it scared me and most of it I’m still trying to understand, but… but despite all of that, I don’t know you. Not really.”

A pregnant silence fell between them as Gemma finished talking and she rested her chin on top of her knees, hugging her legs as she silently watched the Doctor comprehend what she had just told him.

He wasn’t looking at her and for a moment Gemma wondered if she had once again taken it too far. But he had asked for her to talk and talk she had.

To her surprise he suddenly started removing his shoes. The Doctor shrugged off his blue suit jacket and pulled off his tie before he seated himself the same way as Gemma had, but with his legs stretched out towards her.

The sofa wasn’t quite long enough so his feet ended up on either side of her, pressing against the armrest she was leaning against. Gemma sat up straight and tilted her head curiously as he smiled at her.

“Comfortable?” Gemma asked with her eyebrows lifted in amusement and stretched her own legs till her feet rested between the Doctor’s knees.

“What d’you wanna know?” he questioned and watched her expectantly, making Gemma blink in confusion. She wasn’t sure how her pouring her heart out had turned into an Ask Me Anything.

“Right, uhm…” Gemma said and frowned as she tried to think about what to ask him first. “How old are you now?”

“Nine-hundred and three,” the Doctor replied with a grin, perhaps thinking it would shock her, but Gemma had been too far into his future to be shocked by anything involving his age.

The bowtie-wearing Doctor had been 907, which meant Donna had at most four years left to travel with the Doctor. Gemma shook her head as she tried not to think about the companion’s departure. Or this Doctor’s future regeneration.

“How long have you been travelling with Donna?” Gemma couldn’t stop herself from asking and the Doctor’s smile fell as he remembered the tears filling Gemma’s eyes as she had almost revealed Donna’s future before he stopped her.

He had a feeling she didn’t know what would happen to Donna, but the strong-willed woman wouldn’t be with them in the future. How far in the future he didn’t know, though. And it was the same with all of them. In the end they always left.

“A couple of months, I would say. Makes a lot more sense now why you asked about her before we met Martha at the hospital.”

“Still getting a hang of the whole ‘spoilers’ thing,” Gemma said with an apologetic grimace, but the Doctor just smiled encouragingly.  

“You’re a genius, you’ll get a hang of it soon.”

“Sure my tiny human brain can keep up?” Gemma joked with a growing smile as she recalled the rude words of the Grey Doctor and the Doctor lifted his eyebrows in surprise.

“What? ‘Tiny human brain’? Who told you that?” the Doctor exclaimed, but fell quiet when Gemma simply looked at him. “I said that? That’s rude, I’m not that rude, am I that rude?”

“It’s okay. I think the word you used was ‘little’, though and you were having a bad day. I think. Besides, it wasn’t about me.”

“Good, but you have permission to smack me if I ever tell you your brain is tiny,” the Doctor told her with a pointed finger and the serious expression on his face made Gemma laugh.

“Don’t worry, I have people for that,” Gemma informed him with a secretive smile as she fondly thought of Clara, who clearly wasn’t afraid to tell off the Doctor.

“By the way, how did you stop the Sontarans and Luke from choking the world to death?”

“Well, Martha had been cloned, and Donna and the TARDIS were transported onto the Sontaran spaceship, but I managed to find the real Martha and clear the air, plus I got Donna and the TARDIS back.”

“What about the Sontarans?” Gemma questioned when she after a moment’s pause got over the shock of what had happened after she had left. She leaned forward as she waited for the answer and the Doctor smiled at the bright, curious look in her green eyes. 

“I gave them a choice, leave or die.”

“The chose the latter, didn’t they?” Gemma sighed as she fell back against the armrest, remembering the unfathomable pride of General Staal the Undefeated.

The regretful look on the Doctor’s face told her the answer, but something else as well. She had already seen him do it. She knew what he was willing to do for the human race to live.

“And you were gonna die with them, weren’t you?” Gemma asked quietly and the Doctor looked away as he nodded. “What happened?”

“Luke. He switched places with me at the last second, blew himself up with the Sontarans.”

“I’m sorry.”

Their eyes met as a heavy silence fell between them and Gemma could see a whirlwind of emotions in the Doctor’s. Blindly, she reached down and placed a hand on his leg.

“It’s not your fault,” she told him after a long pause and her hand fell from his leg as he bended his knees, leaning his elbows on them while his fingers dug into his unruly hair.

“Doctor,” Gemma spoke insistently as she tipped herself forward to sit on her knees and planted herself between his legs, making him look up in surprise at their sudden proximity.

“Luke’s death is sad and he was so young, but he was also brave. Luke died, not because you happened, but because he did something selfless and beautiful, and if you blame yourself you take that away from him.”

The Doctor stared at her without saying anything, but pulled his fingers from his hair as he leaned back to look at her properly, and Gemma took a deep breath before continuing.

“And Jenny. I can’t imagine how that feels, to lose her. But she didn’t die because of you, she died because of love,” Gemma told in a low voice, feeling it break at the end as she recalled the scene of the young woman dying in the Doctor’s arms. “And we can’t take that away from her no matter how much we might blame ourselves.”

“You blame yourself?” the Doctor asked, tears rimming his eyes, and leaned forward to place his hands on top of Gemma’s. She looked down at their connected hands with a sad smile and shrugged.

“I saw it. I saw him raise the gun, but I wasn’t fast enough. I could’ve taken that bullet and survived. Not my body, but me. And I would gladly have regenerated to save her, and you. But that doesn’t make it my fault and I can’t take Jenny’s death away from her, because that would mean she died for nothing.”

Gemma froze when the Doctor’s hand slowly lifted from hers and he placed it at the back of her head. For a moment she was afraid he was going to kiss her again, but instead he lifted his head and pressed his lips to her forehead. They sat like that for a long moment until the Doctor moved back and Gemma let out a small sigh.

“I sometimes forget you’ve only lived for half a century and not several.”

“Are you calling me an old soul, Doctor?” Gemma teased with a smile as she slowly retreated to her previous seat at the other end of the sofa. The space between them suddenly felt much wider than what it had before.

“The oldest,” the Doctor smiled affectionately and Gemma shook her head with a quiet laugh, fingering her bracelet as she felt a blush rise to her cheeks.

“Says you, spaceman of nine-hundred and three,” Gemma countered and playfully pushed his leg with her foot. She looked away with a small sigh, when she realized she was flirting with him. “Doctor?”

“Yes?”

“The regenerations… you told me this was your tenth body, but there must be some sort of limit, mustn’t there? Not even Time Lords live forever, do they?”

“No, they don’t. Every Time Lord is given a cycle of twelve regenerations.”

“Thirteen bodies then,” Gemma said as she pressed her lips together in thought and the Doctor nodded.

That meant there was a future Doctor, the thirteenth, she hadn’t met yet. Unless Grumpy was the thirteenth and she was yet to meet the twelfth. She hadn’t asked the grey-haired Doctor which regeneration he was, just his age.

But if over a thousand years would pass between this Doctor and the one who was over two-thousand years old then one of the incarnations would have to live to a very old age; even with two regenerations in-between.

“How long does one body last?”

“Well, that depends. But centuries if I don’t get into too much trouble,” the Doctor replied after having pouted his lips in thought, which Gemma tried not to smile at.

“What about me?”

“What about you?” the Doctor questioned with a frown and Gemma sent him a look, telling him that he knew what she meant. He relented with a long sigh as he calmed his fingers through his messy hair. “I don’t know. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

“It’s okay,” Gemma told him, meaning what she was saying despite it being another unknown factor in her life, and smiled.

“Mum and dad once told me that you and Susan stole the TARDIS,” Gemma said after a moment’s pause and glanced at the library with curiosity and admiration.

“Borrowed it. I borrowed it,” the Doctor corrected with a finger raised at her and Gemma rolled her eyes in amusement.

“I think ‘borrowed’ implies the intent to give it back.” She laughed, but fell silent when she realized that there no longer was anyone to give it back to. Just like the Doctor, the TARDIS was the last of its kind.

“Will you tell me about them? The Time Lords and Gallifrey?” Gemma asked quietly, but immediately wanted to take her words back, when she saw the pained expression in the Doctor’s eyes.

She watched silently as the Doctor swung his legs over the edge of the sofa and planted his feet on the floor; afraid that he might refuse and leave. Instead he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his thighs, and nodded towards the forgotten book on the floor.

“I see you’ve already begun finding the answers yourself.”

His voice held no accusations or anger and Gemma glanced down at the book as well.

“I didn’t get very far. Only a few lines.”

“There are over a thousand volumes so you’ll be reading for quite a while.”

“I’ll better get started then.” Gemma smiled and lifted her eyes to look at the Doctor, whose gaze was turned to the empty space in front of him. A heavy silence fell over them, but Gemma remained quiet as she watched the Doctor think.

“It’s gone, all of it,” the Doctor spoke without looking at her and Gemma carefully shifted closer to him, making his eyes briefly dart towards her. “Gallifrey, the Time Lords. There’s no one to deliver the TARDIS back to even if I wanted.”

“There was a war, the Last Great Time War, and we fought against the Daleks,” the Doctor continued after a long moment of silence and Gemma once again moved closer to the Doctor till she was sitting right beside him; facing him with her legs crossed in front of her. 

She had never met them, but had heard enough about the Daleks to fear them. She remembered the stories her parents had told her about their first meeting with the Daleks and Thals on Skaro, and later their fight against the Daleks on Earth in the 22nd century, where the Doctor in the end had left Susan to find her own happy ever after.

“We were losing, everyone was. Planets were destroyed, whole galaxies. Time was collapsing and Gallifrey was falling.”

“You fought in the War,” Gemma spoke quietly, her words more a statement than a question, and she barely noticed herself as her hand started drawing circles on the Doctor’s back in a futile attempt to comfort him.

“At the front lines. Everything was burning, the children… they were all screaming and I decided no more. No more. So I stole a weapon, a terrible weapon made of Time Lord technology and I killed them all. The Daleks, the Time Lords, all the children.”

As the Doctor’s voice broke, Gemma wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled herself closer. The Doctor had covered his face with his hands, but remained in the same position he had been in for the whole story; barely acknowledging that Gemma was even there.

She could feel the Doctor tremble underneath her touch as she rested her head against his back, closing her eyes as she listened to his double heartbeat.

Her left hand wrapped around the Doctor’s shoulder, anchoring herself to him, while her right lifted to the back of his neck, and she felt him shiver as her fingers drew soft lines just beneath the hairline.

Gemma had no words. No words that would comfort him or excuse what he had done. He had killed his own people and it was horrible, but she understood why. No more. No more pain, no more screaming children, no more Daleks. And she couldn’t possibly blame him for that, not even if she wanted to.

_“I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore.”_

The Doctor’s words ran through her mind as she thought back to the impossible choice he had faced on the Starship UK: agony and death or extinction. And just like in the Time War he had chosen the latter. But it wasn’t extinction. It was mercy.

It felt like hours had passed, when the Doctor straightened his back and turned his head to look at Gemma with red eyes. Her hands fell from his shoulder and neck as he leaned back, but she didn’t move from the spot right beside him.

“The last of the Time Lords.” Gemma smiled sadly and slowly reached up to rest her hand against his cheek, brushing away a lonely tear with her thumb. “And it only made you kind.”  

“Am I interrupting?” Donna’s voice carefully called from the open doorway to the library and Gemma’s hand fell from the Doctor’s cheek as she turned her head towards the sound.

Donna easily sensed the tension between the pair on the sofa and had half a mind to just leave them to themselves. Gemma replied to Donna’s question with a shake of her head, but looked at the Doctor to see how he felt about Donna’s presence.

“No. No, it’s fine, come in,” the Doctor told Donna with a tired smile and Gemma stood up as the companion walked towards them, meeting her a few steps from the sofa.

She smiled at Donna, who briefly glanced at the Doctor still sitting behind them. She had the sense to not mention that the Doctor looked like he had been crying.

“Donna, I’m-“

“Gemma-“

The two women spoke at the same time as their eyes met, but then paused with a small laugh. They weren’t sure what the other person was going to say and once again opened their mouths at the same time.

“Me first.”

The Doctor chuckled, when they spoke in perfect unison and Donna and Gemma both turned their heads to look at him.

“Okay, you first,” Gemma told the other woman with a small sigh and waited silently for Donna to speak.

“I’m sorry. We… I shouldn’t have talked about you like that. Like you’re somehow completely different now from whom you’ll be in the future. You’re not. You’re Gemma and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Donna apologized with a soft smile and took Gemma’s hands into her own.

“Donna, there’s nothing to be sorry about, really. You were right. I couldn’t possibly be the same person in the future that I am now. First of all, there is a real possibility that you’ve not just met older version of this body, but also other versions, other regenerations. And I know how that process works. It’s not just the body that changes, but the mind too. I’ve been to the Doctor’s future and past, remember. And not all of them had pointy hair and ran around in tight suits. One of them wears a bowtie and suspenders.”

Gemma whispered the last part so the Doctor wouldn’t hear, but Donna took one look at him and barked out a short, but loud laugh.

“Gemma, whatever that was, I’m pretty sure it was a spoiler,” the Doctor spoke from behind them, sounding a bit annoyed that Donna was laughing at him.

“Nothing of consequence, I promise,” Gemma told him with a look over her shoulder and sent him an innocent smile, when he folded his arms in front of him and pouted.

“Secondly, even without regenerations people change. And all of this, running around in space and time, changes you more than anything. Yes, I’ve seen things, aliens and death, and already lived half a lifetime despite looking like a twenty-something year old, and that was all before meeting the Doctor. But this, most of all, is gonna change me. Because travelling with the Doctor changes you.

“So, you were right and I’m sorry. And the fact that I yelled had nothing to do with what you said. I was tired and frustrated and sad, so I lashed out like I was some kinda angry teenager, which is super embarrassing now that I think about it.”

Gemma grimaced at herself, making Donna laugh quietly and then pull her into a hug.

“You should hear some of my temper tantrums,” Donna said as she pulled away after a few moments and let go of Gemma’s hands.

“I think it comes with the hair,” Gemma giggled as she grabbed a lock of Donna’s red hair and took a step closer as she let it go. “Did you know that the Doctor wants to be a ginger?”

“No!” Donna whispered loudly and gaped as she looked at the Doctor, who was watching them with a frown. “The Doctor, a ginger?! I think the universe might implode.”

Gemma pressed her lips together as she tried to hold back laughter, but one look at the confused Doctor, who couldn’t hear what they were talking about, and it spilled out of her.

“What? What is it?” the Doctor asked as he stood from the sofa and walked over to them.

The expression on his face, a mix between annoyance and confusion, made Donna break out into fits as well and soon they were both crying from laughter over something that wasn’t half as funny as they made it out to be.

But it felt nice to just laugh for once and it was either that or more crying, so Gemma and Donna laughed until their stomachs hurt and the Doctor turned on his heel to leave them.

“No, no, wait. I’m sorry, we’re sorry,” Gemma called after the Doctor in-between laughs and bit into her lower lip to stop herself from even smiling, which worked for a couple of seconds before her shoulders started shaking with withheld laughter.

“I’ll be in the console room,” the Doctor muttered as the women kept laughing and left the room without any more protests from either of them.

“We should probably stop now,” Donna said after another minute of laughing and dried away the tears that had gathered in the corner of her eyes.

“Yeah, we probably should.” Gemma nodded and kept her eyes off Donna so she wouldn’t start laughing again.

Shifting her gaze around the room, she noticed that the Doctor’s jacket and tie still hung over the sofa’s armrest and the history book was still on the floor.

“Hey, could you take those?” she asked Donna with a finger pointed towards the clothes as she picked up the heavy book and found the spot from where she had taken it.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Donna questioned with a worried look in her eyes and looked down at the clothes in her hands. Gemma frowned as she thought about what okay even meant for the Doctor and she realized she had no idea.

“I don’t know,” was all Gemma said because it was the only honest answer she could give and the two women both sighed before they left the library side by side.

“Where’s Martha, by the way?” Gemma asked as they walked down the corridors to the console room, not quite sure which way but hoping the TARDIS would lead them there. She felt guilty for only thinking of her friend now, but Donna didn’t seem to blame her.

“We took her home. She’s got a fiancé she wanted to get back to.”

“Tom, yes. I’ve met him, he’s nice.”

“You don’t sound impressed,” Donna inquired and glanced at Gemma, who without noticing had started fiddling with her bracelet.

It was a bad habit, really, and one of the many reason she rarely wore it anymore. But it felt safe and familiar, and those were things she hadn’t felt for days now.

“No, no, he’s nice, he really is. He’s a doctor and a really good one, but Martha is just… she’s brilliant and so brave, and he’s… well, nice.”

“I’d say he could be a whole lot of things worse than nice. He could be working with a giant spider, who wants to eat you for example.”

“Donna, I think that might be a spoiler, but I am really, truly sorry if that happened to you,” Gemma told with a sympathetic smile and stopped to rest her hand on Donna’s arm as they made it to the doorway leading into the console room.

“Yeah, well, I’m over it.” Donna shrugged and Gemma let her hand fall to her side as she moved to walk away, but was stopped by Donna’s voice. “That bracelet on your wrist, I’ve never seen it before. It’s beautiful.”

“Never?” Gemma asked in surprise as she lifted her wrist so Donna could get a closer look. She supposed she wouldn’t always wear it, but didn’t think she would put it away entirely either.

“Who’s it from?” Donna questioned as she brushed her fingers over the diamonds and Gemma missed the brief look she sent towards the Doctor.

“Charles, my boyfriend. Or ex, I should probably say. We never really broke up, I just… well, died.”

“How long were you together?”

“Five years. He gave me this as an anniversary gift. I knew that what he really wanted was to give me a ring, but he didn’t think I’d say yes.”

“Would you?”

“Maybe. I loved him and I could’ve spent the rest of my life with him. But sometimes I would look up at the stars and think of a blue police box that could travel anywhere in time and space, and I would pack a bag for no reason at all and just wait because what if.

“And the stupid thing is that I never wanted this life. The Doctor was the hero in the fairytales I grew up with as a child and I was so afraid that one day I would actually meet him and he would be nothing like I thought. And I think, somehow, Charles knew it. But he still loved me, that stubborn man.”

“Does the Doctor know?” Donna asked quietly, when Gemma finished talking and they both looked towards the Time Lord, who was busy fixing something underneath the console.

“No idea. I haven’t told him yet, but maybe someday if he asks. Not sure why he would, though.”

“Gemma, you were practically engaged to another man. He’ll ask, trust me.”

Gemma blinked in surprise and opened her mouth to ask what Donna meant by ‘another man’ – another man from who? – when the Doctor called out.

“You two done laughing then?”

“Oh, turn that grumpy face upside down. It was just a little fun,” Donna said with a roll of her eyes as she walked into the console room and threw the Doctor’s clothes over one of the pillars. “Right, Gemma?”

Gemma blinked when Donna suddenly addressed her and she realized she hadn’t moved from the doorway, where Donna had left her. She forced a smile to her lips, when the Doctor turned to look at her as well and quickly joined them at the console.

“Right, we were being nice, I promise.” Gemma assured as she leaned her hands on the console and her forced smile turned into a genuine one.

The Doctor looked at her from the other side of the console and a brief frown creased his forehead before he moved to her side while flipping a few switches.

“Are you okay?” he asked in a low voice as he came to a stop right beside her and Gemma felt his breath against her cheek as she turned her head towards him.

“Are you?”

The Doctor’s eyes moved across Gemma’s face searchingly as she stared back at him and eventually the corners of his mouth curved his lips into a smile, which Gemma returned.

_Someday._


	7. To be or not to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Never mind that. Tell me, what’s going on here?” Gemma questioned.
> 
> “Big solar storm, bit of a Frankenstein moment.”
> 
> “The gangers no longer need to be controlled by the humans.”
> 
> “Humans versus gangers.”
> 
> “Kill what you don’t understand.”
> 
> “Humans, they never learn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I forgot to post a new chapter for over a month. I hope you can forgive me<3
> 
> Christmas is over, but I hope you enjoyed the holidays. I ate way too much too many days in a row and feel like I'm going to be full well into the new year. Oh, and happy new year, when we get that far!

Gemma’s eyes were open as she landed in the shadows at the edge of a large room with stone walls and the remains of the golden time vortex briefly lit up the face of the person, who caught her as she stumbled.

“Doctor?” she questioned with wide eyes as she watched the light fade away around the bowtie-wearing man in front of her, leaving his face in darkness. Something was wrong, his face was wrong.

“Gemma!” the Doctor greeted happily and pressed a kiss to her forehead before suddenly flinching in pain. Gemma froze as the Doctor backed away and stepped into a ray of light shining through a window.

He looked like the Doctor, but something was very wrong with his face. His skin was paler than usual and his irises were an eerie white colour, making Gemma take a step back. It looked as if his whole face was swollen, erasing the features and lines on his face, and his skin reminded Gemma of rubber.

“Your face,” Gemma breathed in horror, but didn’t move away when the Doctor stepped towards her, out of the light. “What happened to your face?”

“Yes, that. Stilling setting in, any minute now I’ll look as good as new, which is actually a perfect description of me. New,” the Doctor rambled as he flapped his hands about and Gemma watched him without blinking.

She instinctively moved forward when he doubled over in pain and she grabbed his arms, making his hands wrap around her elbows to steady himself.

“Why? Why?” the Doctor yelled at her and Gemma took a stuttering breath as she felt his grip on her tighten.

“Doctor, what’s wrong? Tell me,” she told as calmly as possibly, but could hear her own voice tremble, which seemed to catch the Doctor’s attention as well.

“Shhh, it’s okay. The Doctor is on his way, it’ll all be okay,” the Doctor reassured her, but Gemma shook her head; unable to understand what he meant.

“You’re the Doctor,” Gemma said as she met the Doctor’s gaze, but felt her conviction fade away as she stared into eyes that wasn’t the Doctor’s at all. “Aren’t you?”

“Yes. No. I’m the Doctor, but not the real Doctor. I’m Flesh, the Ganger Doctor. But I’m also the Doctor.”

“You’re scaring me.” Gemma stammered as she quickly let go of him and luckily he did the same to her. “Where’s the Doctor? What have you done to him?”

“Nothing, nothing. Gemma, I’m him. The Doctor in the TARDIS with two hearts and you,” the ganger explained as he did his best not to touch her and tried not to flinch as his hearts briefly beat out of synch, trying to find the right rhythm.

“But you said you were Flesh. And your face… I don’t even know what Flesh is.”

“Flesh, it’s, it’s matter. Matter, which can be programmed to replicate everything on a cellular level.”

“So you’re a clone? A clone made out of Flesh,” Gemma reiterated and took deep breaths as she tried to understand what was going on. He was the Doctor, but not the real Doctor. “And what about the clothes?”

“It replicates that as well. But, Gemma, it isn’t just the clothes, it’s everything! It’s the mind and soul, it’s me! I’m the Doctor!” the Ganger Doctor told her quickly and made a grimace that was supposed to be a smile, when he saw that she was beginning to understand.

He almost fell to his knees when one of his hearts stopped working, but Gemma caught him and kept him on his feet with some difficulty.

“What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time?” she muttered to herself and heard the Ganger Doctor laugh through the pain. “Okay, tell me then. Tell me something only the Doctor would know.”

“Where did you just come from?”

“We were with Donna and Martha… and Jenny.” Gemma told after a moment’s hesitation and the Ganger Doctor took a moment to think.

“At the hospital, with the Judoon, I kissed you,” he then spoke through gritted teeth and Gemma felt herself blush despite the strange situation she was in.

“Yeah, we need to have a talk about that later,” Gemma scolded him and helped him lean against a pillar, when his weight became too much for her to hold. “And technically, Martha knows that as well.”

The sudden sound of feet and voices coming towards them made Gemma step fully into the shadows, hiding behind a pillar as the door to the room suddenly was thrown open.

“We'll worry about the flares when we're locked inside! Rory, Pond!” a familiar voice hastily told his companions and Gemma’s eyes widened as she recognized the Doctor’s voice. A loud scream could be heard outside the room and Gemma recognized Amy’s voice immediately.  

“Rory, come on!”

She didn’t know who Rory was or why he wouldn’t come inside the room, but Amy sounded distressed as she called after him.  

Gemma looked at the Ganger Doctor, who was standing opposite of her, and saw that he was clutching his head in pain. Silently moving forward, she carefully placed her hands on top of his and tried to make him look at her.

“It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay,” she whispered as quietly as possible and closed her eyes as she tried to think of what to do next.

There were at least four more people in the room other than Amy and the Doctor, and the Ganger Doctor seemed to be hiding from someone, so the question was who? The Doctor or whoever they were clearly running from.

She could hear them barricading the door, while the Doctor tried to calm down Amy.

“Amy, they are not after him, they're after us.”

“Why? Why? Why?” the Ganger Doctor called out as he clutched his head tightly and Gemma shushed him reassuringly, knowing they had to step out of their hiding place, when the Doctor yelled at them.

“Show yourself!”

She had to trust him. She had to trust that the Doctor was on her side, on their side. But she also knew what fear could do to a person, even the Doctor, and looking into your own eyes was certainly something that would horrify her.

“Doctor!” she heard Amy call, but concentrated on listening to the Doctor’s nearing footsteps as the people with him worked on barricading the door.

“Pass me the barrel.”

“We need something heavy. Anything you can find.”

“This is insane. We're fighting ourselves.”

“Yes. Yes, it's insane, and it's about to get even more insanerer. Is that a word?” the Doctor told his companions in a low voice and Gemma shook her head, because ‘insanerer’ was definitely not a word. “Show yourself, right now!”

“It’s me,” Gemma finally called out and stepped into the light with her hands raised in front of her.

“Gemma!” the Doctor greeted in the exact same voice as the ganger had, while Amy’s eyes widened in surprise. “When did you get here?”

“A few minutes ago, but Doctor, there’s something, someone, you need to see,” she told in a calm voice and only stepped forward so she could still see the Ganger Doctor, who was no longer clutching his head.

“Gemma, what are you doing?” Amy questioned uncertainly, when the other woman turned her head to look at someone out of their line of sight and smiled.

“It’s okay, you can come out,” Gemma told the ganger with an inviting nod and then glanced at the Doctor, who was watching her with bathed breath.

“Doctor, we are trapped in here and Rory's out there with them,” Amy said in a frustrated tone, giving up on Gemma who was acting just as weird as the Doctor. “Hello? We can't get to the TARDIS and we can't even leave the island.”

“Correct in every respect, Pond,” the Ganger Doctor suddenly spoke, stepping into the light as he was beckoned by Gemma’s smile and the people in the room all stopped short. “It's frightening, unexpected, frankly a total, utter splattering mess on the carpet, but I am certain, one hundred percent certain, that we can work this out.”

“Trust me. I'm the Doctor,” he finished confidently and smiled as he corrected his bowtie.

“He is, I’ve checked,” Gemma assured the shocked on-lookers and then frowned at her own words. “That sounded very wrong.”

“Gemma, I think you should step away from him,” the Doctor told her in a calm voice without taking his eyes of his Flesh clone and reached out to her.

“Doctor, he’s you! He’s just… he’s made out of Flesh, but he’s you,” Gemma protested, gesturing towards the Ganger Doctor, who suddenly started screaming.

She quickly stepped away, when the ganger face settled in to look exactly like the Doctor’s and he started yelling. Gemma let herself be pulled back, when the Doctor wrapped a hand around her elbow and placed himself in front of her.

“What's happening?” the Doctor asked the screaming ganger as he stepped around him at a safe distance.

“I wonder if we'll get back. Yes, one day,” the ganger lamented sadly before yelling in pain again, bending backwards. “Argh! I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.”

“Doctor?” Gemma called out in worry, seeking an explanation to what was happening to the ganger.

“The Flesh is struggling to cope with our past regenerations. Hold on,” the Doctor told as he moved closer to his ganger and Gemma followed him with slow movements.

“Would you like a jelly baby?” the ganger asked in a deep voice that didn’t seem to belong to himself and thrusted his hand forward with a pained expression on his face.

“Why? Why? Why?” he screamed at the Doctor with tears in his eyes and Gemma stepped forward, only to be held back by the Doctor.

“Why what?” the Doctor yelled at his ganger, who snapped into an upright position.

“Hello. I'm the Doctor,” the ganger spoke in a cheerful voice, which reminded Gemma of the Doctor she had just jumped away from, before he started shouting again. “No, let it go, we've moved on!”

“Hold on, hold on, you can stabilize!” the Doctor urged his ganger and grabbed him before he hit the floor.

Behind her, Gemma sensed Amy run forward to stop the Doctor, but she was held back by a man wearing an orange jumpsuit. Gemma slowly moved closer to the two Doctors, but stayed out of reach.   

“I've reversed the jelly baby of the neutron flow. Would you like a Doctor, Doctor, I'm, I'm the- I can't,” the ganger sobbed as he grabbed the lapels of the Doctor’s jacket, pulling him closer.

“No, listen, hold on. Hold on!”

“No!” the ganger yelled as he violently pushed the Doctor away and Gemma grabbed him, so he wouldn’t fall. The ganger’s face morphed back into the same rubbery texture as when she had found him and screamed.

Gemma let go of the Doctor when the screaming stopped and slowly stepped towards the ganger as his faced returned to normal and he fell silent. Carefully, Gemma walked towards the ganger and placed her hand on his cheek, making him look up at her.

She noticed the Doctor move closer out of the corner of her eye and she smiled comfortingly at the ganger Doctor before taking a step back.   

“I think I liked it best when they were being noisy,” one of the men said, when the banging on the barricaded door suddenly stopped and Amy hummed in agreement. Gemma still didn’t know who they were barricading the door against.

“Doctor, we need you. Get over here,” Amy called from the door, where she was standing with the three men and a woman. Gemma noticed her cast a wary glance at the Ganger Doctor, when he was the one who replied.

“Hello!” he greeted excitedly and grinned at Gemma, who was standing between the two Doctors, watching them both with curiosity.

“Doctor!” Amy called again, trying to get the Doctor’s attention as she ran towards him. She briefly looked at Gemma, trying to catch her gaze, but her eyes were trained on the ganger beside her.

“Cybermats,” the Doctor said as he watched Amy glare at them in frustration before running back to the door.

“Do we have time for this?” the Ganger Doctor questioned with a frown as the Doctor turned his head to look at him.

“We make time. I'd like more proof that you're me. Cybermats.”

“Created by the Cybermen. They kill by feeding off brainwaves.”

“What did you tell Gemma to make her believe you were me?” the Doctor asked with a look at the woman, who blushed at the reminder and glared at the Ganger Doctor to keep him quiet.

“Never mind that. Tell me, what’s going on here?” Gemma questioned with a gesture of her head towards the barricaded door, which was now being slowly dissolved with acid.

“Big solar storm, bit of a Frankenstein moment.”

“The gangers no longer need to be controlled by the humans.”

“Humans versus gangers.”

“Kill what you don’t understand.”

“Humans, they never learn.”

Gemma’s lips parted in bewilderment as she listened to the two Doctors speak as if they were one, practically finishing each other’s sentences.

“You sound like the Weasley twins,” Gemma said before letting out a sigh as she tried to think through the situation they were in. She looked down at their shoes, noticing that they were different. “I’m guessing these are the humans and the gangers are trying to make their way in here to kill us.”

“So, the humans won’t trust you,” she told the Ganger Doctor, who looked down at their shoes as well.

“Why do you trust him?” the Doctor asked as he started untying his shoes without a word, while his ganger followed his lead. Apparently, they were all thinking the same thing.

“Because he’s you,” Gemma simply replied as she watched them switch shoes in a matter of seconds. She almost laughed out loud, when the Doctors both leaned forward and pressed a kiss to each of her cheeks.

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Gemma muttered to herself as she stood between the Doctors, who started talking over her head.

“Rory and Amy, they may not trust both of us, though,” the Doctor said with a look at Amy, who was glancing between the dissolving the door and the three of them with worry.

Gemma suddenly noticed that she looked older and so did the Doctors. Their trip to the Spaceship UK was clearly far behind them.

She still didn’t know who Rory was, but figured he had some attachment to Amy given her earlier distress, when he wouldn’t follow them into the room.

“Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

“Inevitably.”

“I'm glad we're on the same-“

“Wavelength,” the Doctor finished and Gemma smiled at their antics. She wondered if this was how the Doctor sounded when he was alone in the TARDIS, just talking to himself. “You see, great minds.”

“Exactly. So, what's the plan?”

“Save them all, humans and gangers.”

“Tall order. Sounds wonderful.”

“Is that what you were thinking?”

“Yes, it's just so inspiring to hear me say it.”

“I know.” The Ganger Doctor laughed and Gemma pinched the bridge of her nose as she realized she was going to have a headache by the end of this.

“Doctor, come on!” Amy called as the gangers started banging on the door again and Gemma left the Doctors to stand beside the frightened woman.

“They’re giving me a headache,” she complained jokingly, but Amy didn’t smile as she instead glared at the Doctors. “Amy, who’s Rory?”

“This must be early for you then,” Amy said without taking her eyes off the door and Gemma smiled, when she noticed the ring on Amy’s finger. “He’s my husband.”

“Congratulations. Did I miss the wedding?”

“No, you’ll be there.”

“Spoilers!” the Doctors both sang as they simultaneously stepped forward and stopped beside Gemma. She didn’t miss how Amy’s eyes shifted to their shoes, probably determining who was the real Doctor and who was the ganger. “Sorry.”

“But we had to establish a few ground rules.”

“Formulate a protocol.”

“Protocol? Very posh.”

“A protocol between us. Otherwise,”

“It gets horribly embarrassing,”

“And potentially confusing,” the Ganger Doctor finished and Gemma sent Amy a meaningful look.

“You see? Headache.”

“I'm glad you've solved the problem of confusing,” Amy told them in annoyed tone and glared at them both.  

“That's sarcasm,” the Doctor pointed out as if it wasn’t obvious to all of them and the Ganger Doctor nodded in agreement.

“She's very good at sarcasm.”

“Breathe,” the Doctors suddenly yelled at Amy, making both her and Gemma jump in surprise.

“What?”

“We have to get you off this island,” the Ganger Doctor continued as if he hadn’t just scared the two women in front of him and Gemma sent him a questioning look, which he ignored. 

“And the gangers too.”

“Sorry, would you like a memo from the last meeting? They are trying to kill us!” a woman in an orange suit, like the three unfamiliar men, yelled and then turned her head to glare at Gemma. “And where the hell did she come from?”

“She’s with us. Wandered off and got lost from the group. They always do that,” the Doctor informed the woman before continuing in a more serious voice. “And they're scared. That’s why they’re trying to kill us.”

“Doctor, we're trapped in here,” Amy reminded him and Gemma noticed how she was only talking to the Ganger Doctor. The one she thought was the real Doctor.

“Right, see, I don't think so. The Flesh Bowl is fed by cabling from above,” the Doctor said as he looked at the ceiling and Gemma assumed the so-called ‘Flesh Bowl’ was the machine in the middle of the room that had created the Flesh.

“But where are the earthing conduits?” the Ganger Doctor asked out loud for their benefit and they all watched as the Doctor moved a wooden board leaning against the wall.  

“All this piping must go down into a tunnel or a shaft or something, yes? With us?”

“Yowza!” the Doctor exclaimed when he found a grating in the wall, giving them a way out of the room. “An escape route.”

“Yowza?” Amy mouthed to Gemma and they both frowned at the Doctor.

“You know, I'm starting to get a sense of just how impressive it is to hang out with me,” the Doctor said with a smug smile, making Gemma roll her eyes as she stepped past him to open up their escape route.

“Do we tend to say yowza?” the Ganger Doctor pointed out as Gemma managed to pry the grating loose and Amy moved over to help her lift it out of the wall.  

“That's enough, let it go, okay? We're under stress,” the Doctor told his ganger and sent Gemma a sheepish smile, when he caught her glaring at him.  

“Are you two done?” Gemma asked with her arms folded in front of her, annoyed they were busier bantering than actually saving them from the murderous gangers banging on the door outside.

“Yes, sorry! Takes a little longer to think out loud,” the Ganger Doctor apologized while Gemma stepped back to let the Doctor through first.

The Ganger Doctor, pretending to be the original Doctor, had the screwdriver so he would have to go in last and secure the grating against the gangers.

Gemma crawled in after the Doctor and Amy followed right behind her, lighting up the way in front of them with a large torch. There was room enough to stay on their feet, but they had to both crouch and duck in the small space.

“I’ve missed you, princess,” Amy said as they moved quickly through the low tunnel and Gemma looked back at her in surprise. She didn’t think she had ever been called princess before.

“Princess?”

“Oh, it’s a childhood thing. Spoilers, I guess.”

“How long have I been away?” Gemma asked, moving on despite her own curiosity about the nickname Amy had given her. The young woman hadn’t used it the last time they had met.

“A week, maybe two. Hard to keep track in the TARDIS, you know. But the Doctor just gets super restless when you’re not around and starts annoying me instead.”   

“I do not!” the Doctor protested ahead of them and Gemma tried not to think about the fact that he seemed to always be waiting for her to reappear, like with the hospital.

“Well, last I saw you were on the Starship UK.”

“Seriously? That feels like ages ago. My very first trip into space,” Amy mused nostalgically and Gemma briefly smiled at her over her shoulder. They were reaching the end of the tunnel. “After you jumped away, the Doctor said you went to the Moon.”

“I did.”

“How was it?”

“Breath-taking.” Gemma sighed dramatically and she heard the Doctor chuckle, while Amy frowned as she realized she had missed a joke. “We were running out of air and the Great Big Idiot had to go and get himself killed, so I had to give him CPR. That’s not easy, when there’s barely any oxygen left in the room.”   

“I saved half the planet Earth and died, and you’re the one complaining,” the Doctor muttered, almost to himself, as they reached the end and he helped Gemma out of the tunnel. Amy hesitated for a second before she accepted the Doctor’s helping hand.

“So he died? The Doctor actually died?” Amy questioned as the rest of their group exited the tunnel and Gemma tried not to frown at the way she was talking about the Doctor despite him standing right beside her.

Of course, Amy thought he was the Ganger Doctor, but he was still the Doctor. He remembered what had happened at the hospital. She also had a strange look in her eyes, one of sadness if Gemma interpreted it correctly.

“His hearts stopped beating and he wasn’t breathing, so yeah. But it’s okay. I brought him back,” Gemma told Amy and placed a comforting hand on her arm, when it looked like she was blinking away tears.

“She always brings me back,” the Ganger Doctor said with a soft smile as he left the tunnel just in front of the angry woman in the orange jumpsuit.

They were now standing in a corridor and the Ganger Doctor grabbed Gemma’s hand as he led them deeper into the building, away from the gangers.

“The army will send a recon team out,” one of the men said. His looked to be in his mid-thirties and had dark, flat hair. The second of the men looked older with grey, thin hair while the third looked to be in his mid-twenties.

“We need to find a way to contact the mainland,” the woman said and Gemma frowned, when she noticed her briefly grimace in what looked like pain.

“What about Rory and Jen? They are both out there,” Amy reminded them and they all stopped to look around.

Gemma glanced at the Doctor, who was keeping quiet while he let his clone play leader. She wondered if it was difficult for him to be the one to follow for once. Sensing she was watching him, the Doctor looked up and winked at her.

“No, this place is a maze. Takes a long time to find someone in a maze,” the Ganger Doctor told the group before turning to look at the woman. “I bet you lot have got a computer map, haven't you?”

“If we can get power running, we can scan for them. Be a lot quicker.”

Gemma coughed when a thick, white smoke suddenly started filling the air around them and she let go of the Ganger Doctor’s hand to cover her mouth.

“Doctor, you said earlier to breathe,” Amy said as she started coughing as well and even the Doctors were finding it hard to breathe properly.

“Very important, Pond. Breathe.”

“Yeah, well, I'm struggling to.”

“Acid interacting with the stone,” the Ganger Doctor explained as they all struggled to catch their breath in the smoky corridor.  

“Creating an asphyxiant miasma,” the Doctor continued and the woman looked at him with annoyance, unable to understand his scientific terms.  

“A what?”

“Choking gas,” Gemma yelled as her voice was losing its strength and the Doctor nodded as he spoke.

“Extra heavy. If we can get above it…”

“The evac tower. It's this way,” the woman called as she ran forward, pointing in the direction of the tower, and they all followed as quickly as they could.

Gemma tried to take deeper breaths as they made it to the tower and the Doctor quickly looked her over, while the Ganger Doctor took care of Amy.

“Oh. I think I coughed so hard, I pulled a muscle or something. It's okay, it's better. It's easing off,” Amy reassured him and Gemma followed her over to a monitoring station in the middle of the room.

The Doctors and the woman were already trying to get it work, so they could contact an evacuation team. Above them a church bell started ringing and Gemma realized that they for some reason were in a monastery.

“It's midnight. It's Adam's birthday. My son's five,” the grey-haired man told them with a smile before turning his gaze away. “Happy birthday, bud.”

“Are you okay?” Gemma asked with a frown, when she noticed Amy place a hand on her stomach and rub it slowly. Following Gemma’s gaze, Amy seemed to notice what she was doing and dropped her hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Just remember to breathe,” Gemma told her in a calm voice, when her eyes briefly met the Doctor’s, who watched their interaction with the same worry as Gemma felt.

“Can you really get the power back?” the woman asked the Doctors as the three of them stood behind the monitoring station, while the Doctors fiddled with various wires and couplings.

“Oh, there's always some power floating around,” the Doctor said as he leaned on the station, studying a bundle of wires. Gemma was standing beside Amy in front of the station, watching them work.

“Sticking to the wires, like bits of lint,” the Ganger Doctor finished as he popped up from behind the station as the Doctor ducked behind it.

“Can you stop finishing each other's-“ Amy asked in an irritated voice with her arms crossed in front of her and Gemma sighed as she sat down in the chair by the station.

“Sentences? No probs,” the Ganger Doctor interrupted and the Doctor briefly raised his head before both of them disappeared behind the station. “Yes.”

Amy sent Gemma an incredulous look, but all she could do was shrug. She was still trying to figure out who everyone was and what she could expect to happen.

The woman, who Gemma figured was also the leader of the humans, seemed angry at best and hateful at worst. The three men were working behind Amy and Gemma, and she couldn’t really tell much about them.

“No, hang on. You said that the TARDIS was stuck in acid, so won't she be damaged?” Amy asked while looking at the spot the Doctor had just disappeared from.  

“Nah, she's a tough old thing. Tough, old, sexy,” the Ganger Doctor replied as he appeared on the right side of Amy and the Doctor popped up on the left. It was like they were playing whack-a-mole.

“Tough, dependable, sexy.”

“I wonder if my parents ever had to put up with something like this.” Gemma sighed as the Doctors disappeared behind the station again. She blinked in surprise when the Ganger Doctor reappeared.

“Yes. Well, technically no.”

“There was a robot. The Daleks made a robot, which looked exactly like me, except it was evil,” the Doctor supplied with a pointed finger and Gemma stood up from her chair, leaning over the station in curiosity. She didn’t remember hearing this story before.

“And your father attacked me, couldn’t tell the difference. But I destroyed the robot, so it was fine.”

“They left after that. Took a Dalek spaceship back to December, nineteen sixty-five,” the Doctor told her solemnly and disappeared behind the station, while the Ganger Doctor continued to watch her.

“December? Are you sure, cos they told me September.”

“December, nineteen sixty-five.”

“No way,” Gemma spoke with a wide-eyed look and turned her back on the Doctors to think. She spun around again with a scandalized gasp, trying to hold back a smile.

“What way?” the Doctor asked as he stood up to look at her and shared a confused look with his clone.

“I was born the fourth of July nineteen sixty-six, which means…”

“You were probably conceived aboard the TARDIS,” the Ganger Doctor finished with a nod and Gemma’s excitement faded as she realized the Doctor already knew and he had been keeping it from her.

Gemma opened her mouth to ask about it, when she noticed both Doctors were looking at Amy and she followed their eyes down to Amy’s stomach. Her head whipped around to look at the Doctors, when a thought suddenly occurred to her and the look on their faces made Gemma fall back into the chair.

It seemed her parents hadn’t been the only ones to get busy while travelling with the Doctor.   

“Okay, how can how can you both be real?” Amy asked as she stepped forward and hadn’t noticed the silent conversation going on between Gemma and the Doctors.  

“Well, because we are. I'm the Doctor,” the Doctor told her with a smile and studied the box in his hands before disappearing behind the station.

“Yeah and so am I,” the Ganger Doctor said with a lifted arm to get Amy’s attention. “We both contain the knowledge of over nine hundred years of memory and experience.”

“We both wear the same bow tie, which is cool,” he continued with a grin and pulled at both ends of his bowtie, making the Doctor pop up excitedly.

“Because bowties are.”

“And always will be.”

“But how did the Flesh read you? Because you weren't linked up to it,” Amy questioned the Ganger Doctor, who was fiddling with something on top of the station, not looking at her as he explained.  

“Well, it must've been after I examined it. Thus, a new, genuine Doctor was created.”

“Ta-da!” the Doctor sang and waved his hands as if he had just pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

“No getting away from it though. One of you was here first,” Amy insisted and Gemma rose from the chair again as she did not like where this was going. Amy was clearly trying to differentiate between them, deciding who was worth more. 

“Well, okay. After the Flesh scanned me, I had an accident with a puddle of acid. Now, new shoes. A situation which did not confront me learned self here,” the Ganger Doctor relented before diving behind the station and Amy sent the Doctor a wary glance as he smiled at her.  

“That satisfy you, Pond?”

“Don't call me Pond, please,” Amy told the Doctor, who she thought to be the Ganger, and took a step away from him. Both Doctors paused their work to look at her and Gemma turned to face her as well. “What?”

“Interesting. You definitely feel more affection for him than me,” the Doctor pointed out with a frown and Amy stepped forward as she tried to explain herself.

“No, no, I… Look, you're fine and everything, but he's the Doctor. Gemma agrees with me, right?”

“Don’t bring me into this, Amy. I know that he’s the Doctor,” Gemma told and pointed at the Doctor before turning her eyes to the Ganger, “and so is he. It doesn’t really matter who came first.”

“No offence. Being almost the Doctor is pretty damn impressive.” Amy sighed as she tried to reconcile herself with the Doctor and Gemma, not understanding why they were reacting so strongly to her words.

“Being almost the Doctor's like being no Doctor at all!”

“Don't overreact,” Amy scoffed and looked towards the vanished Ganger Doctor, who didn’t seem to be bothered by their argument.

“You might as well call me Smith,” the Doctor told her with a gesture of his hand, telling her that he was giving up trying to convince her he was the Doctor.  

“Smith?”

“John Smith.”

“Yes!” the Ganger Doctor exclaimed, jumping up from behind the monitoring station with his arms in the air. “Communication is a go-go.”

The argument between Amy and the Doctor was quickly forgotten as they all rushed to the station and Gemma stepped aside at the leader sat down to take control. 

“Find Rory! Show me the scanning tracking screen. Come on, Rory, let's be having you,” Amy told the woman as she stared unblinkingly at the screen, which didn’t offer any positive results.  

“There's no sign of him anywhere.”

“Come on. Come on, baby, show yourself,” Amy pleaded and Gemma placed a hand on her back, sharing a worried look with the Doctor, who was standing beside her. The Ganger Doctor was still behind the station, watching the group in front of the screen.

“Saint John's calling the mainland. Are you receiving me, Captain? Come in,” the leader called into the radio as she tried to get in contact with her employers.

“We'll never get a signal through this storm,” she told them in a frustrated tone before trying again. “Saint John's calling the mainland. Come in, this is urgent.”

“ _We're just about reading you, Saint John's. How are you doing? We've had all kinds of trouble here,_ ” a male voice suddenly responded through the radio and Gemma heard the humans breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“Request immediate evacuation. We're under attack. The storm's affected our gangers. They're running amok.”

“ _Your gangers?_ ”

“Yes, our gangers are attacking us. We need you to take us off the island immediately and wipe them out.”

Gemma froze at her words and felt herself being pulled back by the Doctor as she opened her mouth to protest. Her eyes turned to the Ganger Doctor, who shared a look with the Doctor and Gemma turned to him, finding a dark expression on his face.

“ _Copy that, Saint John's. Shuttle's dispatched. Hang on._ ”

“What the hell is going on?” she hissed at the Doctor, who grabbed her hand tightly in his and pulled her closer to his side. “Doctor, we can’t let them do this.”

“We won’t, I promise,” the Doctor told her in a low voice and they both ignored the others’ gazes, which flickered towards them. “I tried to do it peacefully, make them meet and talk, but it went wrong. She killed one of them.”

“No wonder they’re trying to kill us then!” Gemma exclaimed, not caring who heard her, and clenched her free hand in frustration as she glared at the woman, who had just finished the radio call. “Who the hell is she?”

“I’m Cleaves and the leader of this factory,” the woman told her as she spun the chair around to look at them and stood up when Gemma walked up to her.

“No, you’re a murderer and you’ll have to go through me before you even try to touch one hair on his head,” Gemma growled as she pointed at the Doctor behind her.

She shared a brief look with the Ganger Doctor before turning her eyes to Amy, who looked away in the face of her anger. Cleaves watched her for a long moment, not certain whether to take Gemma’s threat seriously, and sent her an unimpressed look.

“And who are you then?”

“I’m Gemma,” was all she said before walking back to the Doctor and she was satisfied to see fear briefly flash through Cleaves’ eyes.

Gemma tried to calm her breathing as she once again stood beside the Doctor and she closed her eyes, when he placed his hands against her cheek.

“You’re letting anger get the best of you. Don’t. They’re already afraid, don’t let them fear you too. They need to trust you, Amy needs you,” he spoke in a low voice only she could hear and she nodded as she leaned away from him, opening her eyes.

Looking around, she saw that the humans were busy gathering and repairing their electronics and lights while both Amy and the Ganger Doctor had taken a seat in front of the monitoring station.

“I am not apologizing,” Gemma told the Doctor as she briefly glared at Cleaves, who was looking their way, and the left corner of his mouth curved into half a smile.

“I’m not asking you to.”

“What are you doing?” she then heard Amy ask the Ganger Doctor and looked over to see him messing around with the radio.

“Making a phone call.”

“Who to?”

“No one yet. It's on delay.”

“Right. Not getting it. Why exactly are you making a phone call?”

“Because, Amy, I am and always will be the optimist,” the Ganger Doctor told the companion, making Amy smile as he spun around in his chair before doing the same to hers. ”The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”

“The wheels are in motion. Done,” he said as he finished preparing the call and glanced at Amy, who was now staring at Gemma and the Doctor.

“Doctor?” Gemma spoke quietly, trying to distract him from Amy and the Ganger whispering about them in the background, but his eyes only shifted to her briefly before turning back to Amy.  

Gemma’s attention shifted to Amy as well, when she suddenly rose from her chair and walked past them with a fearful look in her eyes. She was staring at something on the stone wall behind them and Gemma took a step towards her, when she suddenly jumped in shock.

“Amy? What happened?” the Ganger Doctor called, when he heard her gasp and spun around in his chair to look at her.

“It's her again,” Amy told breathlessly as she moved back to the station and sat down beside the Ganger Doctor. Gemma looked back at the Doctor, who had turned his back on them and wore a thoughtful expression.

“It's who again?”

“There's a woman I keep seeing. A woman with an eyepatch, and she has this habit of sliding walls open and staring at me. Doctor?”

“It's nothing,” the Ganger Doctor informed her casually despite the worried crease on his forehead and Gemma looked at the Doctor for answers but was ignored.

“Doesn't seem like nothing.”

“It's a time memory. Like a mirage. It's nothing to worry about.”

“It's in my head,” the Doctor suddenly said and closed his eyes tightly as if he was in pain before leaving the room.

“Hey, hold on!” the father of Adam called after him and Cleaves moved to follow him.

“Don't let him go.”

“No, leave it to me,” Amy quickly told them and ran after the Doctor with a torch in her hand.

Gemma stared after them for a moment before turning towards the Ganger Doctor, who wore a sad expression on his face. She didn’t hesitate to walk over to him and spun his chair towards her as she leaned in over him.

“Doctor, what’s wrong with Amy?” Gemma whispered as she brought her face closer to his, trying to make sure the others wouldn’t hear.

Their noses were only a few inches from touching and Gemma tried not to blink as the Ganger Doctor carefully brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.

“She’s pregnant,” he spoke softly and didn’t seem surprised when Gemma only nodded.

“I thought so, but there’s something else, isn’t there? How far is she?”

“Nine months.”

Gemma took a step back at his words, bumping into the station behind her, and the Ganger Doctor stood up from his chair and placed his hand at the back of her neck.

“How?” Gemma breathed as he leaned forward until she felt his breath against her ear.

“I’m sorry, Gemma. But someone’s taken Amy. The Amy we’re with, she’s Flesh.”

His voice was a calming hum, but it didn’t stop the momentary feeling of panic that shot through Gemma and she let out a small gasp, pushing away from the Ganger Doctor, who let her go.

“The woman with the eyepatch in the wall…” Gemma whispered and her voice trailed off as she tried to make sense of what she had been told. “You said it was a time memory. It’s real, isn’t it? Whoever that woman is, she has Amy. Our Amy.”

“She does and I think Amy is about to give birth, but we’ll find her. I promise, we’ll find her. But we can’t tell her, not yet. And Rory can’t know either.”

“You didn’t come here by coincidence, did you?” Gemma asked with a small tilt of her head and the Ganger Doctor shook his head before suddenly shutting his eyes tightly. “What is it?”

“Why?” the Ganger Doctor asked in a wondering tone as he opened his eyes to look at Gemma, and she was reminded of how he had asked that same question several times, when she had first found him.  

“Keep him away from me,” Amy ordered in a frightened voice when she suddenly ran back into the room and placed herself beside Gemma, grabbing her hand to the other woman’s surprise.

“Did you sense it?” the Doctor asked his ganger as he walked inside and Gemma squeezed Amy’s hand as she shied away from him.  

“Briefly. Not as strong as you,” the ganger told as he sat back down in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Amy, I'm sorry,” the Doctor addressed Amy in a calm voice, reaching his hands out towards her from a distance and Gemma felt Amy’s hand tighten around hers.

“No, you keep away. We can't trust you,” she sneered at the Doctor with an accusatory finger pointed at him and Gemma let go of her hand, taking a step towards the Doctor.

“Amy, he’s the Doctor. He’s not gonna hurt you, or anyone,” Gemma tried telling the young woman, who only glared at her.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t see how he just grabbed me and pushed me against a wall,” Amy hissed at her and Gemma’s eyes snapped towards the Doctor, who sent her an apologetic look.

_What the hell are you up to, Doctor?_  

“It would appear I can connect to the Flesh,” he told them as he started pacing on the spot, glancing around at all of them.

“You are Flesh,” Amy bit back and Gemma glanced at the Ganger Doctor, unsure of what to do with herself.

She could feel how the atmosphere in the room was changing as even Amy started to distrust the Doctor, and Gemma felt stuck in the middle.

“I'm beginning to understand what it's been through, what it needs.”

“What you want. You are it.”

“It's much more powerful than we thought,” the Doctor continued without paying attention to Amy’s remarks and turned to Cleaves. “The Flesh can grow, correct?”

“Its cells can divide.”

“Well, now it wants to do that at will,” the Doctor told them in a low voice as he came to a stop in front of Cleaves, who was stood by the station beside the Ganger Doctor. “It wants revenge. It's in pain, angry. It wants revenge.” 

“I was right. You're not the Doctor. You can't ever be. You're just a copy,” Amy spoke as she sent the Doctor a disdainful look and Gemma pressed her lips together when she felt like yelling in frustration.  

“Doctor, it might be best if you stayed over there for now, hmm?” Cleaves suggested calmly with a hint of a smug smile on her lips and gestured with her eyes to the other end of the room. Gemma felt the Ganger Doctor’s hand wrap around her wrist, when she took a step towards Cleaves.  

“Hold on a minute, hold your horses.” The Ganger Doctor sighed tiredly as he looked between the paranoid humans surrounding them. “I thought I'd explained this. I'm him, he's me.”

“Doctor, we have no issue with you, but when it comes to your ganger…” Cleaves told him in a kind voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Gemma, and she pulled her wrist from the Ganger Doctor’s hand.

“Remember what I told you. Not one hair,” Gemma warned in a low voice as she stepped in-between her and the Doctor, but the woman just as smiled as she now had the upper-hand.   

“Buzzer,” Cleaves called out to the man with the flat, dark hair, who had stepped forward at the same time as Gemma.

“Sure, boss.” He nodded and found a tin barrel, which he placed at the other end of the room. The Doctor sent Gemma a look, telling her to calm down, before he walked over to the barrel presented to him.

“Take a seat, mate,” Buzzer told him without moving away as he made sure the Doctor sat down.

“Nice barrel, very comfy. Why not?” the Doctor said conversationally as he sat down before looking straight at Amy. “Is this really what you want?”

No one answered the Doctor’s question and Gemma took a step towards him, only to stop when he almost unnoticeably shook his head. Looking back at Amy, she saw how tense the other woman was and placed her hands on Amy’s shoulders.

“Breathe,” she instructed in a soothing voice and let out a deep breath at the same time as Amy. Gemma stepped back, when she felt Amy’s shoulders relax underneath her touch.

“I need to find Rory,” Amy told her after a few more deep breaths and turned to the screens on the monitoring station.

“Here, let me help,” Gemma offered and smiled at Amy, who nodded gratefully. The grey-haired man appeared beside Gemma as she searched through the monastery for human life signs and he gave a brief nod as he tinkered with the radio, trying to re-establish contact.

“Happy birthday to your son,” Gemma told him as she kept her eyes on the screen in front of her, but felt him look at her in surprise. “It was Adam, right?”

“Yes, he’s five today.”

“That’s nice. I think. I’ve no idea how kids are at five. Never had any myself.”

“Well, you’re young so I’d say there’s still time.”

Gemma couldn’t help but let out a small laugh as she was definitely not young anymore, but she supposed her body was at its height of its reproductive capabilities.

“I’m Jimmy,” he then introduced himself and Gemma looked at him with a smile.

“Gemma.”

“ _This is the shuttle. We're right above you, but we can't get low enough. Gamma static could fry our nav-controls. Sit tight. We'll get to you. Just,_ ” the same voice as earlier called over the radio before cutting out and Jimmy turned different controls as he tried find the right frequency again.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

“Amy, I’m sorry, I can’t find him,” Gemma finally told with an apologetic look as she gave up her search and Amy turned to the Ganger Doctor with a determined expression on her face.

“We can't find Rory. I'm going out there.”

“We could use the sonic to track him. Humans and gangers give off slightly different signals. The sonic needs to tell the difference,” the Ganger Doctor informed Amy as he rolled the sonic between his fingers.

Gemma couldn’t help but closely study Amy as he said it, knowing that she would give off a different signal than the rest of them. The fact that Amy didn’t know that she was Flesh herself only proved to Gemma how real the Ganger Doctor was, how the Doctor and him were exactly the same.

“Oh, so the sonic knows gangers are different. The other Doctor is different,” Amy replied smugly and crossed her arms in front of her, thinking it was proof that the ganger wasn’t the Doctor.  

“He is the Doctor.”  

“Not to me. I can tell,” Amy said forcefully and Gemma leaned against the control panel as she listened to the two argue, turning her eyes to the other Doctor.

He was surprisingly motionless for a man who never stood still for more than a few moments and his eyes followed Amy’s every movement.  

“Sure you're not prejudiced?”

“Nice try, but I know, okay? We've been through too much. You're my Doctor. End of.”

“And what about Gemma?” the Ganger Doctor whispered with a tilt of his head and Amy frowned as they both looked at her. She didn’t seem to have heard them as her eyes were trained on the Doctor at the other end of the room. “Do you think she can tell?”

“Of course she can. Gemma knows you better than anyone and she’s here with you, isn’t she?”

“Or maybe she’s here with you.”

“Hey, there's a camera up. We've got a visual,” Jimmy informed them before Amy could ask what the Doctor meant. 

“That's Rory and Jennifer,” Amy said as she watched the man and woman, who ran past the camera, and Gemma managed to get a brief look at them.

“They're heading for the thermostatic room.” 

“Let's go get them,” Amy urged the Ganger Doctor, who answered by tossing the sonic screwdriver to the Doctor. 

“We can't let him go. Are you crazy?” Cleaves complained loudly.

“Am I crazy, Doctor?” the Ganger Doctor asked his counterpart, who briefly paused to think.

“Well, you did once plumb your brain into the core of an entire planet just to halt its orbit and win a bet,” the Doctor replied, making the ganger grin and Gemma laugh quietly. Both of the Doctors smiled at the sound. 

“He can't go rescue them. I'm going,” Amy protested with a glare directed at the Ganger Doctor.

“Do you know, I want him to go,” he said as he slowly rose from the chair and Gemma could tell Amy was forcing herself not to step back as he dangerously lowered his voice. “And I'm rather adamant.”

“Well then, he'll need company. Right, boss?” Buzzer interjected with a look at Cleaves, who only answered with a cautious look of her own. “It's fine. I'll handle it.”

“Thank you, Buzzer,” the Doctor said with a snap of his fingers before looking at Amy. “It'll be all right. I'll find him.”

“Do you need my help?” Gemma called after him as he walked with Buzzer to the door, but the Doctor only winked at her before leaving the room.  

“Can't explain it to you now, but I need you to trust him,” the Ganger Doctor implored the young woman in front of him. “Can you do that for me, Amy?”

“And what if you're wrong?”

“These temperature gauges are rising. Jennifer and Rory must have shut off the underground cooling vents,” Cleaves interrupted as she studied one of the screens with a frown and the Doctor was quickly by her side.  

“Why do that? They'll kill us,” the third man, who Gemma didn’t know the name of, said. Gemma quickly joined the Doctor by the screens to see what was happening.

“There's a million gallons of boiling acid under our feet.”

“And now it's heating up the whole island. How long till it blows?”

The Doctor’s words were followed by a loud rumble and the building shook for a second or so, making Gemma grab the Doctor’s arm to keep her balance.

“Gangers or no gangers, we need to get the hell out of here.”

“Shuttle, we need evac. Where are you? Can you hear me? Can you-“ Cleaves called over the radio, but her voice cut of, when a piercing headache suddenly hit her.

“Cleaves? Cleaves? Cleaves, sit down,” the Doctor quickly told the woman and made her sit down in one of the chairs, while he took the other one.

“I'm fine,” Cleaves tried to reassure them, but the Doctor shook his head when Gemma sent him a questioning look. “I'm waiting for results, so let it go.”

“It's a very deep parietal clot,” the Doctor told her without further ado and Cleaves lifted her head in surprise to look at him.

“How can you possibly…? Inoperable?”

“On Earth, yes.”  

“Well, seeing as Earth's all that's on…” Cleaves started, but paused when she saw the look on the Doctor’s face, telling her otherwise, ”offer. Hmm. I'm no healthy spring chicken, and you're no weatherman. Right?”

Another quake underneath shook the building even harder this time and Gemma heard Amy fall to the ground with a yelp.

“That did not sound good.”

“Something just cracked. I heard it.”

“Yeah, we can't stay here,” the Doctor yelled, agreeing with Gemma and Amy, and quickly switched off what he could on the station, so it wouldn’t blow up. “Let's go.”

“He's right. Let's shift,” Jimmy called as he helped the Doctor, while Cleaves tried to contact the rescue shuttle again.

“Cleaves to Shuttle. Respond. We need to move, and we can't be collected from the Evac tower.”

“ _Give us the code word,_ ” a voice responded and Cleaves opened her mouth to give it, when the room shook again and alarms went off as the station sparked.

“Cleaves? Cleaves, it's dead. It's dead,” the Doctor told her as she tried to get in contact with the shuttle and Gemma grabbed her arm, dragging her out of the chair. “We need to get out of here. We need to get back downstairs and get those vents back on. Come on.”

Dust cascaded from the ceiling as they ran through the corridors of the monastery and Gemma breathed a relieved sigh when the shaking finally stopped. Cleaves was leading them forward, but stopped when she turned around a corner to find a corridor with eyes hanging on the walls. 

“Ah. The eyes have it,” the Doctor mused as he shone his torch over the eyes and they moved to follow his movements. Gemma followed him down the corridor and moved a hand in front of one of the eyes to watch it flicker from side to side.  

“Why are they here?” Amy asked and pressed herself against the other side of the corridor as she followed them.  

“To accuse us,” the Doctor replied in a dark voice and cast a glance at Gemma, who was staring at Cleaves.

“We are all guilty of something, after all.”

“Ignore them,” Cleaves said, unable to meet Gemma’s gaze, and gestured for the rest of the group to follow Gemma and the Doctor. “It's not far.”

They made it down to the thermostatic room a minute later and Cleaves followed Gemma and the Doctor over to the computer as they tried to reverse Rory and Jennifer’s orders.

“It's a chemical chain reaction now. I can't stop it. This place is going to blow sky high,” the Doctor told them, when he realized there was nothing he could do and nervously rubbed his hands together.  

“Exactly how long have we got?”

“An hour? Five seconds?” the Doctor guessed with a look at Gemma and waved his hands around, making Gemma take one of them into hers. “Er, somewhere in between.”

“Fifteen minutes,” Gemma told Cleaves with fake confidence, knowing that it might be far less or even more. Sometimes uncertainty was worse than a ticking clock.

“Yes! Fifteen minutes, that sounds reasonable.”

A loud alarm went off above them and Gemma’s eyes widened in fear when she realized they needed to leave the room immediately unless they wanted to get blown up along with it.

“Out!” the Doctor yelled at all of them, pulling Gemma and Cleaves by their hands. They made it out of the room safely, but the group suddenly stopped as they made it into a narrow corridor. Looking up ahead, Gemma saw Amy hugging a young man.

“Rory?” Gemma asked the Doctor, who responded with a nod.

“There's a way out. Jennifer found it. A secret tunnel under the crypt,” Rory told them when he finished hugging his wife.

“From the crypt? It's not on the schematics,” Cleaves objected, but Rory seemed confident that he had found an escape route.

He wasn’t the strapping hero Gemma had thought Amy might fall for, but not unattractive by any means. His nose was maybe a little big, but the same could be said about the Doctor’s chin.  

“It runs right out of the monastery. Maybe even under the TARDIS, Doctor,” Rory assured them and seemed to notice Gemma’s presence only when he looked at the Doctor. “Hi, Gemma.”

“Nice to meet you, Rory,” Gemma told him with a smile and Rory sent her a confused look before turning to Amy.

“First time meeting you.”

“Really? Right, well, follow me,” Rory instructed with a shake of his head as he wasn’t quite able to wrap his head around the fact that this was Gemma’s first meeting with him, when he had known her for so long.

Running through more corridors they made it to a large, round room with an acid boiler in the middle. Gemma paused on top of the stairs with Rory, while the others ran down to look at the boiler.

“We can't leave without Buzzer,” Jimmy reminded Cleaves, who turned on her heel to go back up the stairs.

“I'll go back for him.”

“Er, Doctor, look. I'd better tell you,” Rory suddenly called from behind Gemma and she turned around to find a nervous expression on his face. “I haven't been quite straight with you.”

Gemma let out a yelp, when she was suddenly pulled out of the room and the door slammed in front of her. The person holding on to her was a dark-haired woman at the same height as Gemma and she realized it had to be Jennifer, the woman Rory had been running around with.

“Rory, what the hell are you two doing?” Gemma questioned angrily as she wrestled her arm out of Jennifer’s grip and tried to pull at the locked door.

“Gemma! Rory!” she heard the Doctor shout from inside the room and his face appeared in the round window in the door as he banged on it.     

“Hang on, Jen. We don't need to lock them up. We should just show them what we've found,” Rory told Jennifer as he joined Gemma by the door and tried to help her open it.  

“I don't think so,” Jennifer said with a sinister smile and Gemma turned away from the door to keep an eye on Jennifer.

“Rory Pond, Roranicus Pondicus!” the Doctor yelled at Rory, who had stopped trying to open the door at Jennifer’s behest and Amy appeared behind the Doctor.

Gemma backed herself against the wall, when Cleaves’ ganger suddenly stood beside her. To her surprise the woman didn’t seem ready to hurt her.

“Rory, what the hell are you playing at?”

“They've been throwing away old Flesh and leaving it to rot. Alive. I think the world should see that,” Rory told the Doctor, who was briefly silenced, and Gemma didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. What he was doing was brave and good, but now was so not the time.

“Rory, there is no time. The factory's about to explode. Gemma, open the door!” the Doctor shouted back and moved his head to get a glimpse of Gemma, who was stood to the side.

“I’ve tried, but it’s locked! And Jennifer isn’t the only ganger out here,” Gemma yelled back without taking her eyes of Ganger Cleaves and she heard the Doctor’s banging turn more violent.  

“Are you sure about this?” Rory asked as he turned away from the door, sending Gemma a worried look as she was clearly more scared than she had to be. “Because I'm not. Let them out.”

“The little girl got strong,” Jennifer told Rory instead of doing as he said and Gemma could see that something was very wrong, when the words took him by surprise.   

“What?”

“The little girl lost on the moors in her red wellies, looking for a way home? Well, she got strong, Rory. I told you, remember?”

“But that wasn't… it was the other Jennifer that told me about being a little girl.”

“Oh, fuck me,” Gemma groaned as she realized Rory had been tricked into doing something that didn’t have anything to do with the world seeing what was being done to the gangers.

They want revenge, the Doctor had said, and Jennifer was about to get hers, it seemed.   

“Oh? What other Jennifer?” she asked innocently as her eyes briefly turned eerie white just like the Ganger Doctor’s had been at first.  

“Well, the, the, er. Wait, you tricked me?” Rory stammered and fought against Jennifer, when she grabbed him with a smile and started to pull him away. Gemma could hear Amy screaming for Rory on the other side of the door. “Let me go. I'm opening the door. Let me-! I'm sorry!”

“I think I might just stay here,” Gemma told Ganger Cleaves with a forced smile and the ganger almost looked amused as she shook her head.

“Sorry, but Mr. Smith is looking for you.”

Taking Gemma’s arm in a firm, but gentle grasp, she pulled Gemma with her. On the other side of the door, human Cleaves watched them leave and the ganger stepped up to the door.

“We have to be free,” Ganger Cleaves told her human counterpart with an almost apologetic look in her eyes and was about to step away, when Cleaves responded.

“I'm sorry too, Miranda,” she yelled through the window, but didn’t sound very sorry in Gemma’s ears. “Of all the humans in the world, you had to pick the one with the clot. But hey, them's the breaks. Welcome to the human race.”

“Doctor, don’t worry about me!” Gemma shouted as Cleaves pulled her away and she didn’t bother fighting the ganger.

“Is he your husband? The Doctor?” Ganger Cleaves asked as they walked down the corridors, following the sounds of Rory struggling against Jennifer, and Gemma laughed.

“I’ve only known him for a week and a half, so I’d say definitely not. Was it him who told you to take me with you? The Ganger Doctor, I mean, or John Smith as he insists on calling himself.”

“Yes. He was very keen to have you by his side, so I thought you might be married, or lovers.”

“Can I just say that despite the fact you’re kidnapping me, you’re much nicer than human you.”

“Well, she’s me and I’m her so I don’t know if that’s really a compliment,” Ganger Cleaves told her even though Gemma noticed the smile on her lips.

“It’s a deep parietal clot, the headache you’re feeling. Essentially inoperable, but I think the Doctor might have something that will help. Of course, that means you’ll have to not kill the others.”

“I don’t want to kill them,” Ganger Cleaves muttered as they made to their destination, a large kitchen and collective space, and Gemma was pushed inside to stand beside Rory.

The Doctor was sitting on the dinner table between Rory and Jennifer, and didn’t even look at Gemma as she walked past him.

“You created another ganger just to trick me. You tricked me. When I found you, you were both Flesh and you tricked me into trusting you,” Rory wasn’t finished yelling at Jennifer, who watched him with a smile that made Gemma feel sick. “Jen's dead, isn't she?”

“She's gone, Rory. Gone,” the Doctor informed in a loud voice and didn’t seem bothered by human Jennifer’s death. Gemma knew that he was acting like one of the gangers, even though he wasn’t, but his performance was still good enough to scare even Gemma.

“ _Shuttle. We're dropping down on our approach. Stand by for evac._ ”

“The humans will be melted, as they deserve, and then the factory will be destroyed. Once we get to the mainland, the real battle begins. The humans won't stand a chance,” Jennifer spoke callously and Gemma could sense Rory panicking beside her. Jennifer grinned as she pointed at the Doctor. “You're one of us, Doctor. Join the revolution.”

“I'm gonna go and get them out. Gemma, come on.”

Rory didn’t make it far as the Doctor suddenly stood up and pushed him backwards. Gemma was quickly by Rory’s side to help him keep his balance and she felt Rory grab her hand in shock over the Doctor’s behaviour.

“No way,” he breathed in a frightened voice and backed away with wide eyes directed at the Doctor, pulling Gemma with him. “Gemma, he’s…”

“Yeah, I know,” Gemma replied in a sad voice, playing along with the Doctor’s pretend.

“But you, he wouldn’t hurt you. He lo-“

“Ring, ring!” the Doctor suddenly yelled loudly as he checked his wrist watch, cutting off Rory.

“Doctor, we can't just let them die,” Rory objected in a desperate voice as he let go of Gemma and walked towards the exit again, only to be pushed back by the Doctor.

“Ring, ring,” the Doctor called more quietly, looking at his wrist watch with a frown, and Gemma suddenly remembered the delayed call she had heard the Ganger Doctor tell Amy about.

“Doctor!”

“Ring, ring!”

Gemma grabbed Rory’s arm for balance when the whole building suddenly shook, and Rory took it as his chance to run.

“Stay,” the Doctor ordered him with a pointed finger after Rory had only taken a few steps and he quickly backed away with his hands raised in front of him.

“Okay.”

Gemma breathed a small sigh of relief, when a phone finally started ringing and the Doctor’s mood flipped on a switch.

“Ah, that'll be the phone. Somebody get the phone. Jimmy, get the phone. No?” the Doctor ranted as he took a turn around himself and grinned at Gemma. “Gemma, love, will you get the phone?”

“Of course, dear.” Gemma smiled and walked to where the Doctor was pointing, while he told the others to stay put.

She could sense the confusion radiating off the others, especially Rory, but focused on figuring out the unfamiliar holographic communication system in front of her.

A screen told her it was a pre-booked holo-call and she pressed the accept button as the Doctor ran to the other side of the table.

“ _Thank you for booking your holo-call with Morpeth Jetsan, bringing the world together,_ ” a computerized voice told them as a holographic image of a young boy appeared in front of the Doctor.

“Ha! Hello, Adam, I'm the Doctor. Well, other Doctor. Or Smith. It's complicated and boring,” the Doctor greeted the boy excitedly and Gemma walked over to stand beside him. “Anyway, who cares. It's your birthday!”

“Yay!” Adam exclaimed happily, playing with the hem of his shirt as he watched the strange man in front of him.  

“Yay!” the Doctor echoed and clapped his hands together. Gemma looked over her shoulder to see Ganger Jimmy step forward at the sight of his son. “Now, have you been getting up very early and jumping on the bed?”

“Yes, really high,” Adam told them as the Doctor jumped on the spot and Gemma tried not to laugh at the Time Lord.

“I expect chocolate for breakfast. If you don't feel sick by mid-morning, you're not doing it right,” the Doctor said before turning to look at Ganger Jimmy with a smile. “Now, I think you want to speak to dad.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” Adam yelled excitedly and Gemma smiled sadly as he called out for his father. “Daddy?”

“You'll do, Jimmy,” the Doctor told the ganger as he walked towards him and the conflict was clear on Jimmy’s face. “What does the other Jimmy matter now? You're both the same dad, aren't you? Come on, Adam's waiting.”

“Daddy? Daddy, what's that rumbly noise?” Adam called when the building shook again and Gemma hoped Jimmy would choose right in time. With the whole factory about to blow, being in a room filled with a large tub of acid couldn’t possibly be safe.

“What's going on, Daddy? Daddy?” Adam questioned with a tilt of his head and Gemma breathed a sigh of relief, when Ganger Jimmy ran out of the room.  

“It’s okay. He’ll be with you in a moment,” Gemma told the young boy with a smile.

“You've tricked him into an act of weakness, Doctor,” Jennifer hissed at the Doctor from the other side of the table and Gemma tried to keep her attention on Adam as to not scare the boy.

“Who are you?” Adam asked her with a curious look and Gemma smiled as she listened to the Doctor convince the other gangers to save the humans, and the Ganger Doctor, trapped in the acid room.

“My name is Gemma. I’m an astronaut.”

“A real astronaut?”

“You can't stop the factory from melting down, boss. I'll take revenge on humanity with or without you,” Gemma heard Jennifer sneer at Ganger Cleaves before the Doctor interrupted her.

“It doesn't have to be about revenge! It can be so much better than that.”

“Are you really an astronaut?” Adam repeated, bringing Gemma’s attention back to him as Jennifer ran out of the room, and she sent him a bright smile.

“What? You don’t believe me? I’ve been to the Moon, actually.”

“In the sky?” Adam questioned with his mouth agape and Gemma nodded with a laugh.

“Do you want to know a secret?” she spoke in a low voice and felt the Doctor return to stand beside her.

“Yes.”

“Do you promise not to tell?”

“Yes!”

“The Moon is actually made of cheese,” Gemma told him conspiratorially and the young back boy threw his head back as he laughed loudly.     

“Where’s Buzzer?” she muttered without looking at the Doctor as Adam kept laughing and she kept a smile on her face as well.

“He didn’t make it, I’m sorry.”

“Will they make it?”

“They’re with the Doctor. I’ve heard he’s brilliant,” the Doctor told her, leaning close to speak into her ear, and Gemma rolled her eyes even though she couldn’t help but giggle.

“Not from me, you haven’t,” Gemma teased and turned her head to look at him, finding him much closer than expected.

She could feel her heart beat a little bit faster as he smiled at her and their eye contact was only broken, when Adam’s voice brought them out of it.

“Where’s daddy?”

“He’ll be with you in twenty seconds. Can you count to twenty?” the Doctor asked the young boy, who nodded and started counting on his fingers.

Leaving the Doctor to count with Adam, Gemma walked over to Rory, who still seemed shaken by the turn of events.

“You know, I think this takes the prize for worst first impression ever,” Gemma joked as she came to stand beside him and Rory momentarily hid his face in his hands.

“I’m sorry, I really am. I was just trying to… I don’t know, be the Doctor, I guess,” Rory admitted with a long sigh and Gemma smiled as she looked over at the Doctor, who was pretending to be missing a finger.

“I like you, Rory Pond. And even though you got me kidnapped, you did it out of the goodness of your heart.”

“It’s Williams, actually. Rory Williams.”

“Rory Williams, Rory Pond. Rory the Roman,” Gemma mused as she remembered how the Doctor for some reason had called him Roranicus Pondicus.

“Wait, isn’t that too early for you to know?”

“Know what?”

“About the Pandorica?”

“Ooh, spoilers.” Gemma grinned and Rory’s face fell as he realized he had made a mistake. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell the Doctor.”

They were interrupted as the group from the acid room walked in and Gemma’s heart dropped as she noticed that only Ganger Jimmy had returned. She stepped aside as Cleaves walked up to her ganger and smiled as Rory and Amy hugged before Amy hit him on the chest.

Gemma took the Ganger Doctor’s hand as he came to stand beside her and squeezed in greeting. Hearing Jimmy talk to his son, they turned their attention towards them.

“Hey, sunshine. What are you up to?”

“Opening all my presents,” Adam told excitedly, making Jimmy laugh.

“Good lad. You have fun today. And remember your dad, he loves you very, very much.”  

“When are you coming home?” Adam asked as the Doctor walked up behind Jimmy, answering for him.

“Daddy's coming home today, Adam.”

“Yay!” Adam exclaimed and did a little dance that made them all smile. The happy moment didn’t last long as the Doctor turned on the spot with a serious expression on his face.

“Now we need to move.”

The Ganger Doctor took the lead, still letting everyone believe he was the original, as they made it down to the crypt to find the tunnel that could lead them out. They all stopped short when a humanoid creature stood in their way, growling at them.

“Run,” the Ganger Doctor told them without taking his eyes of the beast that used to be Ganger Jennifer and turned his head, when he noticed no one was following his orders. “Run! Oh, roof's going to give.”

They managed to outrun Jennifer down a long corridor, but realized they couldn’t keep running. They made it to a security door that wouldn’t lock and before anyone could stop him, Dickens ran towards Jennifer to get to another door between them and her that could.

Ganger Dickens called out to him, when the door locked with Dickens on the wrong side and they heard him scream in pain. Closing the door that wouldn’t lock, they threw themselves against it as it wouldn’t take long for Jennifer to find her way through the locked door.  

“Here she comes,” the Doctor sang as his eyes searched the ceiling and he laughed when the TARDIS suddenly crashed through it. “Oh, she does like to make an entrance.”

“Everyone move,” the Doctor called as he unlocked the door to the TARDIS and the Ganger Doctor pushed Gemma away from the door. Realizing what would probably happen now, Gemma found herself unable to run back to the TARDIS.

“Go. Go, go, go!”

“Get on board. Go,” Ganger Cleaves yelled at her human counterpart, who hesitated to run back to the TARDIS.

“I'm not leaving.”

“Go,” Ganger Cleaves ordered as Jennifer banged loudly against the door, and Cleaves ran past Gemma, who was watching Amy and the Ganger Doctor argue.

“Hey, hey. Now's our chance,” Amy told him as she stood beside the door, waiting for the Ganger Doctor to follow them.

“I have to stay. Hold this door closed. Give you time to dematerialise,” the Ganger Doctor explained in-between breaths as it was getting harder to hold the door.

“Oh, don't be crazy. Okay, what happens to you?”  

“Well, this place is just about to explode. But I can stop her,” the Ganger Doctor told as the Doctor walked towards them, stopping beside Gemma.  

“Both of you can survive this, okay? There has to be a way,” Amy protested and her eyes sought out Gemma, hoping that the other woman would back her up.

But Gemma was barely listening to her as she instead stared at the Ganger Doctor. He tried to send her a smile in return, but it turned into a grimace as he pushed back against the door.   

“Or perhaps you think I should stay instead? Mr. Smith,” the Doctor asked Amy and he sounded angry that she still couldn’t see they were the same person.  

“No, of course not,” Amy said as she walked over to the Doctor. “But look, this man, I've flown with him, you know? And you are amazing and yeah, I misjudged you, but you're not him. I'm sorry.”

“Amy, we swapped shoes,” the Ganger Doctor called from behind her and the banging seemed to have stopped for a moment.

“I'm the Doctor,” the Doctor told her and Amy’s eyes flew to Gemma’s in confirmation as everything suddenly flipped on its head.

“And I'm the Flesh.”

“You can't be,” Amy objected with a look at the Doctor and then turned to the ganger by the door. “You're the real him.”

“No, I'm not, and I haven't been all along.”

“Amy, it’s true. He’s the Doctor and he’s the ganger,” Gemma said as she pointed at the two Doctors. “I saw them switch shoes.”

“She gave us the idea,” the Ganger Doctor yelled as he and Ganger Cleaves pushed back against the door, where Jennifer had renewed her effort to get through.

“What?”

“I'm the original Doctor, Amy. We had to know if we were truly the same. It was important, vital we learn about The Flesh, and we could only do that through your eyes.”

Amy turned to the Ganger Doctor as the Doctor finished speaking and the ganger caught her as she fell into his arms, hugging him tightly. The embrace lasted for a long moment until the Ganger Doctor had to jump back towards the door and Rory called for her.  

“Amy, come on!”

“Well, my death arrives, I suppose,” the Ganger Doctor said as Amy ran off and Gemma took a step towards him, making both the Doctors glance at her.

“But this one, we're not invited to.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing. Your molecular memory can survive this, you know. It may not be the end,” the Doctor informed his ganger as he reached into his pocket and tossed his sonic screwdriver to the clone.

“Yeah, well, if I turn up to nick all your biscuits, then you'll know you were right, won't you,” the Ganger Doctor joked and the Doctor laughed before giving his ganger a solemn nod.

“Come on, Gemma.”

“How am I supposed to just leave you behind?” Gemma asked the Ganger Doctor, ignoring the Doctor as he grabbed her hand and tugged at it.

“One step at a time.”

“You need to stop doing this.” Gemma laughed humourlessly and pulled herself from the Doctor’s hold as she stepped up to the Ganger Doctor.

“What?”

“Being a bloody hero.”

“Never.” The Ganger Doctor grinned, but was silenced when Gemma suddenly pressed her lips to his cheek, brushing the corner of his mouth as she pulled away.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Gemma told him before she turned on her heel and walked over to Amy’s side, passing the Doctor without so much as a look at him.

“Doctor, Gemma! No, please,” Amy protested as she was dragged back towards the TARDIS by Rory, but they all stopped, when they realized Ganger Cleaves was still by the Ganger Doctor’s side.

“You too, Cleaves. Off you pop.”

“I'm staying.”

“This is not the time for grand gestures.”

“Says the king of grand gestures. This is my factory. I'm not going anywhere.”

“Foreman Miranda Cleaves, marvellous.” The Ganger Doctor laughed and planted a quick kiss on her forehead. “Beware of imitations.”

“Clear off out of here, the lot of you,” Ganger Cleaves called out to them and Gemma shared one last look with the Ganger Doctor, before she ran into the TARDIS and closed the doors behind her.

Gemma remained standing by the doors as the TARDIS took off and pressed her forehead against the wood as she thought of the Doctor she had just left for dead. She knew that he wasn’t really dead, he was in the TARDIS with her, but they had both been so real. They were both real.

“The energy from the TARDIS will stabilize the gangers for good. They're people now,” the Doctor told their passengers, bringing Gemma out of her thoughts. She turned around with a sigh and walked up to the console, leaning against it.  

“And what happens to me? I still have this,” Cleaves asked and pointed at her head, referring to the clot that was going to kill her one day.  

“Ah, that's not a problem!” the Doctor exclaimed happily and snapped his fingers as he tried to remember something. “I have something for that. It's small and red and tastes like burnt onions.”

“Ha! But it'll get rid of your blood clot,” the Doctor said as he found a vial with red liquid under the console and tossed it to Cleaves.

“Happy endings,” he spoke quietly as he found a red balloon behind the console and watched it sway in front of him.

“I’m not sure I deserve this,” Gemma heard Cleaves mutter to herself as she stared down at the vial in her hands.

“You do,” Gemma told her with an honest smile, making everyone look at her as they hadn’t heard Cleaves speak. “Your ganger, she was brave and decent, which means you are too.”

“Thank you,” Cleaves replied with a trembling smile and pocketed the vial before looking back at Gemma. “I’m sorry about the Doctor. He was a good man.”

“He is a good man.” Gemma smiled sadly as the Doctor moved to stand beside her and she felt him place his hand over hers. “And maybe two Doctors are more than the universe can take. Either way, it was giving me a headache.”

“Right then! Who’s first?” the Doctor asked loudly and clapped his hands together, when the others all laughed at Gemma’s words. Jimmy slowly lifted his hand with a questioning look at the others, who all agreed with a nod.

A message was sent to Jimmy’s family and a few minutes later Gemma stood beside the Doctor on a beach, watching Jimmy reunite with his son. 

Their next stop was Morpeth Jetsan’s headquarters, the company which owned the factory, and they landed in a large steel and glass building.

“You really want us to do this?” Cleaves asked as they all stepped out of the TARDIS and the Doctor walked them over to tall double doors where the company name was written across.

“Your company's telling the world that the situation is over. You need to get in there and tell them that the situation's only just begun. Make them understand what they're doing to the Flesh. Make them stop,” the Doctor implored Cleaves before turning to Dickens, the ganger now turned human. “Dickens, remember, people are good. In their bones, truly good. Don't hate them, will you?”

“How can I hate them? I'm one of them now.”

“Yeah. And just remember, people died. Don't let that be in vain. Make what you say in that room count.”

“Ready?” Cleaves asked Dickens, who stepped forward and they both stopped just before opening the doors. “Side by side.”

“You got it, boss.”  

Cleaves smiled at Gemma and the Doctor one last time before she opened the doors and the press conference inside made lights flash at them while journalists yelled questions.

“You okay?” Amy asked the Doctor, who was rubbing his chin in thought, and pushed her shoulder against his.

“I said breathe, Pond. Remember? Well, breathe,” the Doctor urged her and Gemma watched the young woman with bathed breath as she realized Amy was probably about to go into labor.

“Why?” Amy questioned in a frustrated voice and threw her hands into the air, glancing between Gemma and the Doctor, who both wore the same grave expression.

“Breathe.”

Amy let out a pained cry as she suddenly doubled over and clutched her stomach, staring at the Doctor in shock.

“Whoa,” Rory spoke as he grabbed a hold of his wife, who moaned in pain. There was a panicked look in his eyes as he looked at Gemma and the Doctor. “What's wrong with her?”

“Get her into the TARDIS,” the Doctor replied calmly and followed Gemma, who was already opening the door for them.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor walked up to the console, while Gemma stayed beside Rory and Amy.

“Gemma? What is happening to her?” Rory asked her as he shut the TARDIS doors behind him and Gemma turned her gaze to the Doctor, who was standing with his back to them.   

“Contractions,”  he told Rory without turning around and Gemma nodded at the scared couple.

“Contractions?”

“Rory, she's going into labour,” Gemma told the young man as calmly as possible and he immediately turned to his wife, grabbing a hold of her as she shook her head in disbelieve.

“Did she say? No. No, no. Of course she didn't. Rory, I don't like this.”

“You're going to have to start explaining some of this to me,” Rory demanded when Amy moaned in pain again and Gemma shushed her quietly as she calmed her hand over Amy’s hair.

“What, the birds and the bees? She's having a baby. I needed to see the Flesh in its early days. That's why I scanned it. That's why we were there in the first place. I was going to drop you off for fish and chips first, but things happened and there was stuff and shenanigans. Beautiful word, shenanigans.”

“Doctor,” Gemma called as she tried to remind him that now wasn’t the time for more shenanigans.

“Breathe,” the Doctor told Amy as he finally turned around to look at them. “I needed enough information to block the signal to the Flesh.”

“What signal?” Amy asked in a scared voice and the Doctor wore a solemn expression on his face as he answered.

“The signal to you.”

“Doctor... Gemma, what’s happening? Tell me,” Amy whimpered and looked at the other woman, who was slowly stepping away from her with an apologetic look in her eyes.

“Stand away from her, Rory,” the Doctor ordered quietly and Gemma saw him swallow the lump that had formed in his throat.

“Why? No. And why?” Rory protested and he grabbed a tighter hold of his wife as Gemma held a hand out towards him.

“Given what we've learned, I'll be as humane as I can, but I need to do this and you need to stand away!” the Doctor told, his voice rising to a shout as he stared down at Rory in an attempt to make him listen.

Slowly, Rory turned to look at Amy, who was shaking her head at him, and stepped back. Gemma carefully grabbed Rory’s elbow, when he was within her reach and pulled him towards her.

“No, no,” Amy cried as Rory let go of her hand and she stared at him and Gemma with a fearful look before turning to the Doctor. “Doctor, I am frightened. I'm properly, properly scared.”

“Don't be. Hold on. We're coming for you. I swear it,” the Doctor promised as he walked over to her and placed his hand against Amy’s cheek, making her grab it. “Whatever happens, however hard, however far, we will find you.”

“I'm right here.”

“No, you're not. You haven't been here for a long, long time,” the Doctor said as he suddenly stepped back and aimed his sonic screwdriver at her.

“Rory, I’m sorry,” Gemma whispered and took his hand between hers as the Doctor turned on the sonic. Moments later Amy turned into a white liquid, which spilled on the floor at their feet.  

“Amy!” Rory shouted as he ran forward, pulling his hand from Gemma’s, and paused at the edge of the puddle. There was a wild expression on his face as his eyes shifted between the Doctor and Gemma before landing on the Doctor. “Where is she?!”

“Rory, we will find her. Whatever it takes,” the Doctor told as he stepped around the liquid Flesh on the floor and Gemma found herself unable to look away from it.

Amy had been standing in front of them seconds ago and now she was just a puddle on the floor. Just like Ganger Cleaves and the Ganger Doctor had probably become after they had left them at the monastery.

“How long have you known?” Rory asked with a trembling voice and his fists were clenched in anger as he stared at the Doctor.

“Only a few days,” the Doctor replied as he crouched down to get a closer look at the liquid Flesh, and Gemma had a feeling he was lying. He had probably known something was wrong with Amy for much longer.

“And what about you?”

Gemma blinked when Rory suddenly turned to her with an accusatory finger pointed at her and she found it hard to meet his gaze.

“I found out at the monastery. The Doctor told me.”

“No, but if you know now and our past is your future that means you’ve known for months. All this time, ever since the Moon landing, you’ve known. When Amy thought she was pregnant, you knew that she was right and you didn’t say anything!”

Gemma instinctively took a step back as Rory stalked towards her while his voice rose to a shout, and she opened her mouth to answer, finding that she had no idea what to say. He was right, after all.

One day she would meet a younger Amy and know exactly what was wrong with her, even before the Doctor would. And she wouldn’t say anything. She couldn’t.

“Don’t you dare blame this on her, Rory Williams,” the Doctor spoke in a low voice as he suddenly stood between them and the threatening tone made Rory stumble backwards.

The two men were almost the same height, but the Doctor seemed to loom over Rory as he slowly stepped forward, making Rory move back. Gemma could only see the Doctor’s back, but she imagined there wasn’t a pleasant expression on his face.

“I’ve known something was wrong with Amy for months, so if you wanna be angry, be angry with me. But don’t ever blame Gemma for knowing the future, our future, when there’s nothing she can do about it.”

“She could’ve said something,” Rory protested weakly, but was slowly realizing he had been wrong to yell at Gemma as his anger faded.

The cold rage in the Doctor’s eyes was making him nervous instead. He had seen that look before but never directed towards him.

“I’m sorry, Rory,” Gemma said as she stepped forward, briefly resting her hand on the Doctor’s arm before placing herself in front of him.

“I wish I could have. But because of today I’m a part of established events, events that can’t be changed without causing a big paradox. If my future self tells you what I’ve learned today, then today will never have happened and I won’t ever have learned about the Flesh or Amy.”

“I know, I get it,” Rory replied sheepishly and was surprised when Gemma moved forward to hug him. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled.”

“Your wife was kidnapped, Rory. You have every right to yell,” Gemma assured him and pulled away with a sudden smile on her face. “Especially now that you’re a dad.”

“I’m a dad,” Rory echoed with a wide-eyed expression and visibly paled as reality caught up with him.

“That you are.” The Doctor smiled and rested his hand on Rory’s shoulder before running up the stairs to the console. “Let’s find your wife and child.”

“Where do we start?” Gemma asked as she followed him, glancing at the white liquid as she passed it and reminded herself to clean it up as soon as possible. It felt wrong somehow to remove it, but they couldn’t leave it either.

“Well, the signal between Amy and the Flesh was a lot easier to block than trace, but I’ve got a general direction. Now, all we need to do is to find the exact location, get some help and make up a plan.”

“Is that _all_ we need?” Rory questioned sarcastically as he joined them by the console and it looked like he was steadily becoming himself again.

“Yes, but first I need to think, which means you two,” the Doctor said and looked between Rory and Gemma, “go eat, sleep, shower, whatever you need.”

“I can’t just go eat and pretend nothing’s wrong, when someone’s kidnapped Amy!” Rory objected loudly and Gemma carefully led him out of the console room as the Doctor was barely listening; already deep in thought.

“They need you, remember? Your wife and child, they need you to be strong so you can find them. Which means eating and sleeping,” Gemma told Rory with a pointed look and pushed him into a chair as they made it to the kitchen. “So first we’re gonna have a cuppa.”

“Why do you think they took her? Why her?” Rory asked from his seat at the dinner table as Gemma filled a kettle with water and placed it on the stove before turning to face Rory.

“It’s the Doctor, isn’t it? They took her because of him,” Rory answered for her when all Gemma could do was look at him with a sad expression on her face.

For some reason she also felt guilty. As if she somehow was part of the reason why Amy was gone, and she didn’t know that she wasn’t. In her future, their past, she might unwittingly do something that would put Amy and her child in danger.

“The Doctor will do everything in his power to get Amy back, you know that. And I’m sorry, Rory, I really am. I wish I could do something to prevent all of this from happening, but all I can do is promise you I’ll do everything in my power to bring her back to you. Her and your child.”

“How long have you known Amy?”

“Well, this actually only my second time meeting her. The first time she was in her nightie on a spaceship, her first trip to space. She was so young, but absolutely brilliant. We saved a Star Whale and all of Britain,” Gemma told with a soft smile on her lips as she found two mugs for them, glancing at Rory over her shoulder.

“She told me. She also said the Doctor would have taken her home if it hadn’t been for you,” Rory said and Gemma paused as she waited for the accusation to come.

If Amy had gone home then she would never have been kidnapped now. But Rory didn’t continue and she let her breath escape through her nose.

“Oh no, that was all Amy. I don’t think the Doctor actually listened to me.”

“This is early for you, isn’t it? In your timeline, I mean. How long have you been with him?”

Gemma frowned as she turned away from her tea-making, surprised by the way Rory had phrased his question.

“It’s hard to tell, but I’ve been travelling with him for two weeks or so. I just came from his past where I stayed for about a week, but before that I barely stayed for a day.”

“And you trust him,” Rory stated although it almost came out as a question. As if he didn’t quite believe she had put her faith in the Doctor so easily.  

“I do. But I also feel like I’ve known him my whole life. Which I suppose I have. It just took me a while to finally meet him.”

“Do you love him?”

Rory’s question startled her and Gemma could only blink as he watched her with a patient expression on his face. Almost as if he knew the answer already and just wanted her to say it out loud.

“I don’t. Not the way you’re thinking, anyway. The Doctor, he’s… he’s like the sun. I love it for keeping me warm and alive, but it’s the sun. Up in the sky, glowing and unreachable.”

“What is?” the Doctor asked as he strode inside the room and Gemma’s eyes widened slightly in surprise over his sudden appearance.

She wondered her much he had heard of speech, even though it only seemed to be the very last of it. But he could easily play ignorant just to see if she would lie to him or not. She would.

“Your confidence. It’s quite blinding, actually,” Gemma teased as she turned back to the kettle, which was now whistling as the water boiled, and tensed slightly when she felt the Doctor’s presence right behind her; his chest brushing against her arm.

It only lasted a moment as he simply took a look at what she was doing and then stepped away, spinning on his heels to face Rory.

“Rory Pond, time to suit up! The Last Centurion is gonna have a little chat with the Twelfth Cyber Legion!” the Doctor exclaimed and clapped his hands together before pointing at a confused Rory.

“Hold on, the Twelfth Cyber Legion? As in Cybermen?” Gemma asked as she abandoned the tea and turned to the Doctor. She had never faced a Cyberman before but knew enough about them to be frightened by the prospect of meeting one.

“I traced the signal to Amy to the third quadrant of the Vente Jenta galaxy, where the Cyber Legion monitors all movement. They’re gonna tell us where Amy is.”

“Are we gonna ask nicely or how are you planning on doing this? Cos a whole legion against the three of us sounds impossible.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan!” the Doctor told them as he dragged Rory out of his chair and pushed him out of the room. “Now go get dressed.”

Rory sent Gemma a questioning look as he stumbled out of the room, but she could only shrug in response. Hopefully, the Doctor had thought it through properly and they weren’t rushing into danger in their desperation to find Amy.    

“What, or who, is the Last Centurion?” Gemma asked as she watched Rory leave and turned to the Doctor, whose eyes were fixed on her. He looked tired, she noticed. The same kind of tired as after Jenny’s death.

“Spoilers. But Rory is. Rory is the Last Centurion.”

Gemma nodded, mostly to herself as the Doctor was finishing the tea, and couldn’t help but suddenly feel awkward when she realized she was alone with the Doctor.

She knew she should have other more important things on her mind, but she couldn’t help thinking about the fact she had kissed the Ganger Doctor. Only on the cheek, but she wondered what he thought of it, or if he even did.

“Are you okay?” the Doctor asked her in a soft voice as he gave her one of the steaming cups filled with tea and Gemma pursed her lips in thought.

“I’m not sure to be honest. I mean, there were two of you and then there was no Amy, and I’m worried about Rory and you, but I don’t know what to do because I feel like I should do more to help than just make tea, but I’m still new to all of this and-“

Gemma’s rambling was cut off by the Doctor, who shushed her as he comfortingly placed a hand on either side of her head. She took a deep breath as he brushed hair out of her face and leaned down to rest his forehead against hers.

His proximity made her heart beat faster, but she closed her eyes and slowly felt herself regain some resemblance of control.

She felt stupid being the one to be comforted, when the Doctor had to be feeling the loss of Amy much more acutely. And it had been his clone, after all, that they had left behind to die at the factory.     

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t… I mean, we don’t have time for another one of my meltdowns. I’m okay, really,” Gemma said as she stepped away from the Doctor and sent him reassuring smile. She tried to ignore the frown on his face as she made to leave the room. “Come on, Amy’s waiting for us.”

The tea in her hand almost spilled on the floor, when the Doctor stopped her from leaving by grabbing her hand and she tried not to sigh as she looked back at him. She was trying her very best to stay calm and collected, but the Doctor wasn’t making it easy for her.

“Before this, where were you? Who were you with?” he asked as his eyes flickered across her face, looking for any sign of what Gemma had been through. His hearts stuttered when grief flashed through her bright green eyes.

“Jenny,” Gemma replied after what felt like a long moment of silence between them and the Doctor swallowed the lump in his throat.

It had been years since he had lost his genetically engineered daughter, but he still remembered the image of her, dying in his arms. With that followed a vision of Donna, slumped in his arms after he had erased him and Gemma from her memories.

“Doctor?” Gemma called quietly, when he fell silent and squeezed his hand to bring him out of wherever his mind had taken him to. He blinked when he realized she was talking to him and smiled at her before pulling him with her out of the room.

“Let’s go find some Cybermen!”


	8. Count the cost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “How many casualties?”
> 
> “What?”
> 
> “You’re going to war. So how many casualties are you expecting, General?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I read somewhere another character was supposed to have been in 'A Good Man Goes to War', but was cut because of scheduling conflicts... But I couldn't help myself, so said character might show their pretty face in this. 
> 
> Also, spoilers for ep. 07x06

“I definitely hate this plan!” Gemma yelled as she jumped behind a wall and avoided a blast from one of the Cybermen by a few centimetres. The Doctor followed her seconds later and he grabbed her hand as they sprinted through the spaceship back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor pulled him in front of her as they reached the blue police box and Gemma stumbled inside with the Doctor on her heels. The doors closed behind them just as the pursuing Cybermen started blasting the TARDIS and they quickly ran to the console.

“ _I have a message and a question. A message from the Doctor and a question from me. Where is my wife? Oh, don't give me those blank looks. The Twelfth Cyber Legion monitors this entire quadrant. You hear everything. So you tell me what I need to know. You tell me now, and I'll be on my way._ ”

Gemma could hear Rory’s voice in her earpiece and looked down at the small device in her hand that would set off the self-destruct sequence; blowing up the Cyber Legion spaceships except for the one Rory was on.

“ _What is the Doctor's message?_ ” she heard the Cyber-Leader ask Rory and she looked at the Doctor, who was busy flying the TARDIS and them out of harm’s way.

Gemma let out a small breath as she pressed a blue button on the device in her hand, relaying the Doctor’s message to the Cybermen. 

She was glad she didn’t have to watch the destruction she had just caused; killing thousands on the ships she just blew up. Albeit, they were emotionless killing machines, but it still made her stomach turn.

“ _Would you like me to repeat the question?_ ” Rory asked in her ear and the TARDIS hummed as the Doctor landed it a couple of meters from where Rory was stood.

Gemma pocketed the device in her jeans as she followed the Doctor out of the TARDIS and closed the doors behind them. Despite the trepidation she felt, Gemma didn’t allow herself to show any signs of it and leaned against the TARDIS with her arms crossed in front of her.

“Hello, boys and girls!” the Doctor greeted with open arms and casually walked up to the Cyber-Leader to stand right in front of him. “Now, I advise you to answer his question or I might come back with a legion of my own. If you’re afraid of me, just wait till you meet the Romans!”

“We are Cybermen. We do not fear,” the Cyber-Leader told in the same monotone voice all of the Cybermen used and the Doctor rolled his eyes.   

“You must have some kind of survival instinct inside that tin head of yours, hmm?” the Doctor said as he took another step towards the Cyber-Leader, staring it down as he lowered his voice. “Tell me, where is Amelia Pond and who took her?”

Gemma reminded herself to breathe calmly as she watched the Doctor and the Cyberman stare at each other for a long moment, and tried not to show any obvious relief when the Cyber-Leader finally spoke.

“Madam Kovarian and Colonel Manton of the Church have taken the human Amelia Pond to the asteroid Demons Run.”

“You got all that information stuffed inside that big head of yours, huh?” the Doctor inquired as he slowly stepped back towards the TARDIS and Gemma placed a hand on the door handle.

With a quick motion of his hand, the Doctor pulled the sonic from his inner pocket and scanned the Cyber-Leader. He was retreating backwards quickly as he read the gathered information on the sonic and motioned for Gemma and Rory to get inside the TARDIS.

“Thank you for your cooperation and have a nice day,” the Doctor told the Cybermen as he stepped into the TARDIS without turning his eyes from them and closed the doors just as they raised their arms to fire.

“Got everything we needed! Let’s go!” the Doctor informed Gemma and Rory as he ran to the console and made the TARDIS take off. Gemma hesitated for a moment before she dug into her back pocket and retrieved the device she had hid there.

“And the rest of the Cybermen?”

The Doctor paused just as he was about to pull a lever and his eyes shifted to Gemma’s hand. She didn’t move as he walked over to her and carefully took the device from her.

Their eyes met for a brief moment before the Doctor looked away and pressed a second button on the device, destroying the last of the Cybermen. Gemma was distracted from the gnawing feeling of guilt by Rory.

“What now? We know where Amy are, but I don’t think this whole three-against-an-army plan is gonna keep working.”

“Right you are, Mr. Pond!” the Doctor said as he dropped the device, the evidence of their destruction, into his pocket and typed in their new destination on the console. “Good thing I’ve got people.”

“People? As in soldiers? Are we going to war?” Gemma asked incredulously and couldn’t help but worry that the Doctor was going to blow his way through the universe to find Amy.

The Doctor she had come from, Pretty Boy, had barely even been able to look at a gun and now there was Bowtie, killing thousands of Cybermen with a press of a button and ready to raise an army.

“We’re getting Amy back, whatever it takes,” Rory spoke from beside her, while her words did seem to make the Doctor stop and think for a moment before his eyes shifted back to the screen in front of him.

“Of course we’re getting Amy back, Rory. But no one actually wins a war. Everyone loses something.”  

Rory stared at her as he considered her words, but then turned to the Doctor with a determined look in his eyes.

“Where are we going first?”

“Gemma goes to Stormcage and picks up River Song, while you-“

“Sorry, I do what? Who’s River Song?” Gemma interrupted the Doctor and he was clearly surprised by her words as he stopped his pacing right in front of her, looking down at her with a frown.

“You haven’t met River Song yet?”

“Is she one of your many female companions?” Gemma asked with a tilt of her head and a hint of teasing in her voice. To her amusement the Doctor blushed.

“No. Well, yes. She’s… I don’t know.”

“Wait, is she your girlfriend or something like that?” Gemma grinned, when the Doctor’s attempt to answer made him flustered and she raised an eyebrow in question.

“No,” the Doctor replied at the same time as Rory answered with a “yes” and Gemma was too busy laughing to notice the look the Doctor sent Rory, telling him to keep quiet.

“No, and I actually don’t know who River Song is. She’s a bit like you, we never meet in the right order,” the Doctor explained to her when Gemma stopped giggling and she was suddenly very curious to meet this other woman.

“She jumps like me?”

“No. She has a vortex manipulator, or sometimes she sends me a message.”

“You don’t know who she really is, but she sends you a message and you come? Sounds like a girlfriend to me, Doctor.”

“It’s a long story and too many spoilers, but someday you’ll understand and hopefully so will I,” Doctor said with a wave of his hand, adding the last part quiet enough for only himself to hear.

Gemma watched him for a moment, wondering what had happened between the Doctor and River Song since he was willing to trust her without actually knowing much about her. But instead of asking, she just nodded in conceit.

“New plan, then. Rory picks up River Song, while we collect some favours,” the Doctor instructed with a clap of his hands and pointed at Rory, then Gemma.

It didn’t escape Gemma’s notice that both Rory and the Doctor seemed to have regained some of their determination now that they were making progress.

And Gemma didn’t doubt that they would find Amy and her baby, but she had a bad feeling about the favours the Doctor spoke of. It made it sound like not all of their help would come willingly.

“Can I change first?” Rory questioned with a grimace as the Doctor typed the coordinates to their next location, and he shifted beneath the stiff breast plate of his centurion outfit.  

“No time!” the Doctor yelled as he flicked a switch and the TARDIS took off. When they landed the Doctor walked over to Rory and placed his hands on the human’s shoulders. “Amy needs her centurion, Rory. Amy and your child.”

“Now take this,” the Doctor said as he withdrew his psychic paper from an inner pocket and put in Rory’s hand, “and use it to get to River Song if necessary. We’ll be back in ten minutes.”

With those words, he turned Rory towards the doors and gave him a light push. Gemma offered him an encouraging smile, when he glanced at her over his shoulder just before closing the door behind him.

“What’s Stormcage?” Gemma asked as they took off, pressing a green button as the Doctor instructed her to do with a nod. By the name alone, it didn’t sound like anything nice.

“A prison,” the Doctor replied without looking at her and Gemma’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“River Song is in prison? What for?”

“Don’t know yet.”

“So, this woman is a criminal, who you know little about, let alone what’s she done, but you trust her,” Gemma recounted as she moved to the Doctor’s side, leaning on her hip against the console. “Explain that to me.”

For a long moment the Doctor didn’t look at her and the silence between them was filled by the wheezing sound of the TARDIS landing. She didn’t know where, but at the moment she was more curious about the mystery woman in the Doctor’s life.

“You told me once that you trusted her. That you trust her with your life. And I trust you, more than anyone in the entire universe,” the Doctor told her as he finally turned to look at her and Gemma felt her cheeks flush, when she met his gaze. It was filled with emotions Gemma couldn’t quite name.

“Oh,” was the only sound, which left her as her lips parted in surprise, and she shifted nervously under the Doctor’s intense stare.

“Ever since we, ever since I met her for the first time you’ve known who she really was.”

“What about what she did?”

“I don’t know, but you trust her and that will always be enough for me,” the Doctor said in a low voice and reached out for her without thinking. He did his best to keep a straight face, when Gemma turned away from him to look at the screen in front of them.

“So, where have we gone to now?”

Gemma’s question was answered a moment later, when a knock landed on the door and they both turned their heads towards the sound.

“Who’s that?”

Instead of answering the Doctor snapped his fingers with a smile and the door sprung open. Gemma looked at the Doctor in surprise as she didn’t know that was something he could do, but the Doctor was focused on the man entering the TARDIS with a large grin.

“Whoa! Changed it up a bit, I see,” he spoke in an American accent as he admired the TARDIS’ interior.

The stranger was handsome with dark brown hair, a strong jaw and a chiselled chin. Even from afar Gemma could also tell that he had dimples when he smiled. He was wearing a long dark blue trench coat and a black shirt underneath. Somehow he felt familiar; like she had seen him before in a picture somewhere.

“Captain!” the Doctor greeted with open arms as he jumped down the stairs to meet the man by the doors, while Gemma remained by the console as the two men hugged.

“Doctor!” the man exclaimed in an equally excited voice and let his hands rest on the Doctor’s shoulders as he briefly studied the Time Lord. “Never thought I’d see you again. But love the new face! And you’re wearing a bowtie now?”

“Ah, yes. They’re cool,” the Doctor said proudly as he tugged on it and then pointed at Gemma over his shoulder. “Gemma thinks so too.”

Gemma was too focused on the stranger to protest the Doctor’s words and crossed her arms in front of her, when his eyes lit up at the sight of her.

“Red!” the man practically yelled as he took the stairs to the console in two strides and Gemma forced herself not to move backwards as he stepped into her personal space.

“It’s Gemma, actually,” she corrected with a tight smile and offered him her hand, hoping he would understand that she had never met him before. Of course, like everyone else, he knew her already.

Luckily he did catch the meaning behind her words and took a step back as he grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it.

“Captain Jack Harkness at your service,” he introduced himself with a wink and Gemma briefly glanced at the Doctor to find that he was actually rolling his eyes. Jack’s smile didn’t falter even as Gemma pulled her hand from his with an unimpressed look.

“First time meeting me, huh? Better make a good first impression then,” Jack said as he smiled at her and then the Doctor before letting his gaze wander across the TARDIS’ interior once more.

“You’re from Torchwood, aren’t you?” Gemma asked with her eyes narrowed at him, when it finally clicked.

She had seen pictures of him and his small gang at UNIT as they made sure to monitor every little part of Torchwood left after the Battle at Canary Wharf. The gun holster visible underneath Jack’s coat had managed to trigger her memory.

“And you’re from UNIT. Doesn’t mean we can’t be friends,” Jack replied without losing the smile on his face and Gemma couldn’t tell if he found their conversation amusing or if he was just really happy to see them again.

“No, but it does mean that we inevitably have to clean up your mess,” Gemma retorted as she took a small step towards him and crossed her arms once more. Jack didn’t seem undeterred by the tone of disdain in Gemma’s voice and instead leaned forward.

“How I’ve missed you,” Jack spoke flirtingly, making Gemma wonder what kind of relationship she was going to have with the man in front of her. He was easy on the eyes and it wasn’t too hard for her to imagine herself with her legs wrapped around him as he-

“Stop it,” the Doctor admonished suddenly as he came to stand beside Gemma and she thought for a second that he was talking to her, making a deep blush creep up her neck.

Briefly glancing at Jack, she found him grinning at her as if he had somehow read her thoughts, and she quickly shifted her gaze to the Doctor.

She didn’t think Jack could actually read minds, but unbeknownst to her there had been a look in her eyes he was all too familiar with. It was the first time he had ever gotten it from her, though.

“No need to get jealous, Doctor.” Jack laughed as he backed off and moved around the console, fiddling with the controls wistfully. 

“Jealous? Why would he be jealous?” Gemma asked as she followed Jack’s movements with a curious expression on her face.  She wasn’t really interested in knowing why the Doctor would be jealous, but rather if there was anything to be jealous of.

“This is early for you, isn’t it?” Jack questioned instead of answering her question and paused to look at her from across the room.

“It’s been a couple of weeks.” Gemma sighed as she did her best not to snap at the Captain. The question was beginning to annoy her. It was like they all waited for her to be someone else, as if she wasn’t right yet.

“So, Doctor. What brings you here?” Jack asked when he sensed Gemma’s irritation and decided to change the topic.

She was different from the Gemma he knew, the goofy and always-smiling Gemma.

“Our friend, Amy, she’s been taken, her and her baby. And I’m afraid we’ll have to go through an army to get them back,” the Doctor explained and wrung his hands together as he walked over to Jack.

The Captain stared at the Doctor for a moment, wondering how desperate he had to be to actually seek out help, to seek out Jack, or more likely the gun in his holster. Glancing at Gemma, he noticed that she looked uncomfortable with the situation.

“Just say the word and I’ll be there,” Jack finally told the Doctor, who reached up and kissed him on the forehead.

Jack was briefly surprised by the gesture, but the Doctor carried on like nothing had happened, and he turned his eyes to Gemma, who was frowning at them. He didn’t have time to think about it as the Doctor got ready to fly off in the TARDIS, and he couldn’t just leave without saying goodbye. Not again.

“Doctor, hold on,” he quickly told the Time Lord, who paused to look at him with his hand rested on a big lever, and the TARDIS fell silent once more with a press of a button. “My team, I need to tell them I’m leaving. And coming back. The last time I left without telling them why… well, you know.”

“Right. Of course!” the Doctor exclaimed after a moment’s thought and did his best to ignore the inquisitive look in Gemma’s eyes as she silently asked for some context.

He desperately wished he could give her some, that he could spare her from the future she was facing, but he couldn’t without risking the time-space continuum and possibly, and most importantly, her life.  

Looking at Jack, Gemma noticed that he was avoiding her gaze just like the Doctor, and with a sigh she let it go. One day, she figured, she would find out what they were wordlessly talking about.

“There you go!” the Doctor exclaimed as he with a few clicks brought the image of a well-dressed man up on the screen and waved at him before pushing it towards Jack.

“Jack?” Gemma heard the man question in a confused tone and watched as Jack smiled at him. It was a different smile from the ones she had seen so far, like it was reserved only for the man on the screen. “Where are you?”

“On board the TARDIS.”

“Oh. So that was the Doctor before? His face has changed, hasn’t it?” the man wondered, and Gemma noticed the British accent. She was curious to see how he looked as she had only caught a brief glimpse of him before, but she didn’t want to intrude.

“They need my help, Gemma and the Doctor. They lost a friend of theirs and I need to help find her,” Jack told after nodding in response to the questions and it almost sounded as if he was trying to convince the other man of the necessity of his help.

“I see. You’re leaving then,” the man spoke calmly, but Gemma could tell he wasn’t happy about it even without looking at his face. It was like he didn’t think Jack was coming back.

“Yes, but I’m coming back.”

“Of course, sir.”

If Jack was surprised by suddenly being addressed as “sir”, he didn’t show it. Gemma, on the other hand, was confused as she thought the two men might be lovers, and she looked at the Doctor, who seemed just as clueless.

“Ianto, I’m coming back,” Jack repeated more insistently and glanced at Gemma and the Doctor as if asking for help. “Right, Doctor?”

“Ten minutes and I’ll bring him back to you,” the Doctor promised as he stepped into the frame beside Jack with a serious expression on his face.

“Let’s make it an hour,” Gemma commented with a meaningful look at the Doctor as there was a good chance he might miss the narrow time frame. After all, he had missed by a month when they had gone back to see her parents.

“One hour, Ianto, and I’ll be back. You won’t even have to tell Gwen.”

“I’ll be expecting you at three thirty-two then,” Ianto replied in a business-like manner, which made Jack smile brightly. “And Jack? Don’t die too many times.”

“Anything for you,” Jack replied with a wink and then nodded at the Doctor to end the call, not noticing that Gemma was staring at him with a deep frown.

“Next stop: Victorian London,” the Doctor informed them as the TARDIS took off and didn’t seem to find anything wrong with the fact Ianto had asked Jack not to die “too many times”.

“Who are we picking up? Sherlock Holmes?” Jack joked and looked at Gemma, expecting her to laugh. Instead he was met by a confused stare and her lips pressed into a thin line.

“Even better! Madam Vastra is an old friend of mine. Well, when I say friend, I mean more like I stopped her from eating the rest of some tunnel workers.”

“Eating?”

“The rest?”

Jack and Gemma’s questions came simultaneously and the Doctor looked between them, not sure which to answer first.

“She’s a detective now. Word of a warning though, she’s a bit… green. And lizard-y,” the Doctor told them, deciding not to answer either of them, and fiddled with the control on the console as they landed.

“Is she a lizard?” Gemma asked with a deadpan expression and the Doctor turned towards her with a lifted finger.

“Silurian, or homo reptilia if you like.”

“Lizard people. Great. Don’t let the conspiracy theorists hear about that,” Gemma said slowly and glanced towards the doors of the TARDIS, which were yet to be knocked on. A thought suddenly struck her and she snapped her head back to Jack and the Doctor.

“No, hold on. You said something, or Ianto did. What did he mean by ‘don’t die too many times’? And don’t tell me ‘spoilers’, cos I’m getting a bit tired of only understanding half of the conversation.”

“I can’t die,” Jack told after a moment of hesitation and a shared look between the two men, which annoyed Gemma.

She didn’t blame them for having to keep secrets, but it didn’t help on her mood either, which was already affected by a lack of sleep and hunger.

“Ever?”

“Possibly. It hasn’t been for a lack of trying, though.”

“You’re older than you look, aren’t you?”

“It’s a nice little trio we got here, huh?” Jack grinned as he pointed between them and they both glanced at the Doctor, who was busy studying something on the screen in front of him.

“So what happens when you die? What if someone cuts your head off? Or rips out your heart? Or just pulverizes you,” Gemma questioned eagerly as she came to stand beside him and he smiled at her despite the morbid topic. The way her green eyes lit up with curiosity was comfortingly familiar.

“Tried ‘em all. Some of them just take a little longer to come back from.”

“Do you know why this happens to you?”

Gemma could immediately tell that he did by the look on his face and there was also some detectable guilt, which made her think he probably couldn’t tell her. Chances were that she would be there, when whatever made him immortal happened.

“Well, at least you know.” She sighed when Jack nodded and her gaze automatically shifted towards the Doctor, who was still busy with the screen. Would they ever find out why Gemma was tied to him, why she was able to regenerate?

“Hey, Doctor,” Jack called when he realized the direction Gemma’s thoughts had taken, hoping to distract her. “When is the Silurian coming?”

“She should be here any second. I’ve parked the TARDIS in her living room so it shouldn’t be hard to miss.”

The Doctor’s words were confirmed by a knock on the door and Gemma skipped down the stairs to let Madam Vastra inside; curious to meet the woman, despite her man-eating tendencies.

She wasn’t sure what she had expected, but she blinked in surprise at the green-scaled alien who was stood on the other side of the door, dressed in a Victorian dress. She remembered suddenly that she had seen drawings of the Silurians in an UNIT file once, but they had only been labelled ‘Lizard Humanoids’ as little was known about them.

“Hello. You must be Gemma. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Vastra greeted pleasantly, bringing Gemma out of her thoughts as she with a blush realized she had been staring.

“Right. Hi, you too. I, er… sorry, how do you know my name?” Gemma asked as she stepped back to let the Silurian inside and was surprised by the dark-haired young woman, who followed Vastra into the TARDIS.

“The Doctor told me about you, of course,” Vastra said before gesturing a gloved hand towards her companion. “This is Jenny, my wife.”

The name stunned Gemma so much she forgot to be confused by how Jenny was dressed as a maid and seemed to be carrying both of the women’s travel bags as if she was nothing more than the help. She realized later that it was most likely just a cover for the two women living together.

“Is something the matter?” Vastra asked in a slightly defensive tone, when she noticed Gemma staring at her wife, and the redhead quickly shook her head, when she realized Vastra thought it was the nature of their relationship Gemma had trouble digesting.

“No, I’m sorry, it’s just… I know a girl named Jenny, knew a girl, I mean. We lost her,” Gemma explained and attempted a smile, which didn’t reach her eyes.

“I’m sorry about your loss, ma’am,” Jenny told her with a sympathetic expression on her face and Gemma nodded in appreciation as she closed the doors behind them.

“Thank you. And please, just call me Gemma.”

Turning away from the doors, Gemma found that Jack and the Doctor had moved away from the console, towards them. Her eyes met the Doctor’s and she didn’t look away even as he came to stand right in front of her, while Jack introduced himself to Vastra and Jenny.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve warned you,” the Doctor spoke in a low voice, only for her to hear, and took her right hand between both of his. His head was bent down to meet her gaze and a worried frown drew his eyebrows together.

“It’s okay. I was just startled, it’s all,” Gemma reassured him with a light smile and watched as he leaned down and kissed the top of her fingers.

The moment was interrupted when they both heard someone hiss, and the Doctor heaved a sigh as he let go of Gemma’s hand.

“Jack, behave!” he admonished without even looking at the Captain, who was backing away from Jenny with his hands raised in surrender. Gemma had to hide a smile, when she realized it was Vastra who had hissed at Jack, probably for flirting with Jenny.

“Just saying hello. I hear it’s polite.”

“So, Doctor. You’re in need of help, I gather,” Vastra spoke as the Doctor returned to the console, but kept glaring at Jack until he was stood beside Gemma, far out of reach.

“Do you just flirt with everything that moves?” Gemma asked Jack quietly as the Doctor informed Vastra and Jenny of their situation, and Jack grinned as she raised her eyebrows at him.

“Why? Are you jealous?”

“You’re not really my type,” Gemma replied as she let her gaze glide over him and rolled her eyes when he didn’t seem convinced.

“Oh, princess, I’m everyone’s type.” Jack laughed with a wink, making Gemma scoff as she couldn’t really disagree with him.

It was only a few minutes ago she had imagined herself in a compromising situation with him. On the other hand, she couldn’t remember when she had last been with someone and she didn’t see that changing anytime soon.

“Although, I do have a disadvantage, when it comes to you,” Jack continued and then paused for dramatic effect, making Gemma look at him questioningly. “Only got one heart.”

His insinuation was far from subtle and Gemma narrowed her eyes at him before briefly glancing at the Doctor to see if he had heard. He still seemed engrossed in his conversation with Vastra.

“I do not, I am not-“ Gemma whispered loudly, but found herself unable to finish her sentence as she was reminded of how she had kissed the Ganger Doctor’s cheek. “Just, shut up, okay?”

“Very mature.” Jack nodded wistfully, but seemed to find her outburst amusing as he was unable to hold back a smile.

“Can I borrow your gun, please? Cos I’d like to shoot you.”

“Me? Your very best friend?” Jack gasped with a hand held dramatically to his chest and Gemma rolled her eyes at him once again.

“Sorry, already got one of those.”

“Martha Jones, if I’m not mistaken.”

“You know Martha?” Gemma asked with her eyebrows lifted in surprise and a genuine smile of admiration spread his lips.

“I’ve travelled with you and the Doctor, you know. Met quite a few of your companions along the way. Amy’s a first, though. But Martha, she’s incredible.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the tell-tale wheezing of the TARDIS taking off and moments later they had landed again. This time Vastra and the Doctor left the TARDIS, while Jenny left the console room with the bags in hand.

“Where’ve we gone to now?” Gemma wondered as she studied the screen by the console with Jack by her side. She was already used to his presence right beside her.

“Looks like we’re in space, fifty-second century,” Jack pointed out from the data on the screen. He then turned to Gemma, who was still interpreting the readings. “You know, none of you have told me how Amy was taken yet, and since when did you start travelling with babies?”

“It’s a bit complicated and we don’t know yet why Amy was taken, or by who really. All we have are some names and a location,” Gemma said with a small sigh as she stepped back from the screen and placed herself in the pilot’s seat. Jack stood opposite her, leaning against the console, and nodded for her to continue.

“I jumped to a monastery, only a few hours ago actually, and I found the Doctor. But not the real Doctor. This one, he was made out of Flesh. It’s a sort of programmable matter used to make clones in the twenty-second century in factories, where the production involved a high risk of fatality. And somehow the Doctor had been cloned.”

“There were two Doctors?” 

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“Spoilers.” Jack smiled and Gemma huffed a sigh of irritation.

“There were two Doctors and they were exactly alike. As in the same person. Things happened, there was a lot of running, and in the end the monastery blew up. Then Amy went into labour.”

“You brought a highly pregnant woman with you?”

“The things is, Amy, the one running around with us, wasn’t the real Amy and didn’t look the least bit pregnant. She was Flesh. The Doctor had gone to monastery just to study the Flesh cos he already knew.

“Someone took Amy months ago, probably from her own home, and put a Flesh clone in her place. The Flesh didn’t even know she wasn’t the real Amy. But when our Amy went into labour far, far away, the Flesh felt it.”

“Where is the Flesh Amy now then?” Jack asked after only a brief moment of silence, seemingly accepting everything she was telling him without greater difficulty.

“An hour ago she was a puddle on the floor,” Gemma told with an uneasy look in her eyes and nodded towards the floor by the TARDIS doors. “The Doctor disintegrated her. He had to, so we can find the real Amy. I, er… I cleaned it up.”

It had been awful to simply just get on her knees and soak up the Flesh that had previously been the young, determined woman she had already come to care for. But neither Rory nor the Doctor had been able to even look at it. She had thrown up whatever was left in her stomach afterwards.

“What about the other Doctor?” Jack asked with a worried frown as he noticed the nauseated look on Gemma’s face, which quickly turned sorrowful at his question.

“He died. There was this, well, monster after us, and him and another one of the clones barricaded a door, so we could escape in the TARDIS. And it’s silly because he wasn’t the real Doctor, but they were still the same. Two hearts, the same memories, and everything. And leaving him there to die was horrible.”

“Well, you love him, don’t you?” Jack shrugged as if that explained why Gemma was getting teary-eyed over the death of the Ganger Doctor.

“I’ve only just met him.” She sighed heavily as she blinked away her tears before they could spill, and she suddenly felt very tired.

She felt depleted of energy and all of these seemingly one-sided discussions only made her frustrated. It was like they all kept asking questions they already knew the answer to, as if Gemma’s opinion didn’t actually matter. As if the future was set in stone.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t love him, Gemma.”

“Maybe, but I’m not just some teenager, who falls in love because of one glance. This isn’t Romeo and Juliet,” Gemma argued with a shake of her head and raised a questioning brow at Jack, when he snorted in amusement. She wasn’t sure what she had said that was funny, but kept talking when she got no answer from Jack. 

“I’ve been in love before. I was practically engaged!” Gemma continued in a low voice and waved the arm with the diamond bracelet in the air. Jack didn’t seem surprised by neither the engagement nor the bracelet.

“And love is more than just fancying someone. It’s big and complicated and heart breaking.”

“Believe me, I know,” Jack breathed as he crossed his arms in front of him, and Gemma watched him with a sad smile. She recognized the look in his blue eyes.

“How old are you really, Jack?” Gemma asked with a tilt of her head and waited patiently as he looked at the ceiling to think. Several seconds later, Jack’s eyes met hers and he somehow looked older; as if going through his own memories had aged him in seconds.

“I’ve lost count, but a couple of thousand years.”

Gemma nodded knowingly as if it made perfect sense to her and then fell silent. Jack could tell she had something else on her mind and remained quiet as well, waiting for her to talk.

“That man you talked to, Ianto. Do you love him?” she finally asked as she lifted her eyes from her hands and noticed the way Jack’s lips curved into a smile at the sound of the name.

“What makes you think we’re together?”

“The way you smiled at him,” Gemma revealed with a smile of her own and Jack suddenly became self-conscious as he rubbed his cheek, where one of his dimples was showing. “Admittedly, I was a bit thrown by the ‘sir’…”

“Kinky, huh?” Jack said with a wiggle of his eyebrows and Gemma simply rolled her eyes in response.

“So, do you love him?”

“It’s complicated,” Jack admitted after a long moment’s thought and Gemma sighed wistfully.

“Yeah, it is.”

Their moment of bonding came to an end as the TARDIS’ doors opened and the Doctor walked back inside with Vastra on his heels.

“Mind sharing what you’ve been doing?” Gemma asked the Doctor as they reached the console, but he didn’t look at her as he started typing in their new coordinates.

“We had a talk with my brother and sisters from the fifth battalion of the Silurian Army. They agreed to help with our rescue mission,” Vastra informed her instead and Gemma frowned as she realized what that meant.

“The army? You mean soldier with guns, willing to kill?”

Gemma’s words were directed at the Doctor, who finally looked up at the angry tone in her voice. She watched him with lightning shooting from her eyes and he met her gaze for a brief moment before he walked to the other side of the console, away from her.

“What’s next? We go ask the Judoon for help? They are the intergalactic police, so a kidnapping should be right up their alley,” Gemma hissed as she followed the Doctor, silently willing him to look at her or at least just answer.

“Or how about the Haths and the humans on Messaline? I know you told them to lay down their guns, but they must ‘owe you a favour’ as well, right? Or should I call UNIT? If you like, I’ll even pick up a gun myself.”

Gemma’s rant was cut short as the Doctor spun around to face her and the whirling storm in his eyes clashed with the crackling thunder in hers. On the other side of the console, Vastra and Jack shared a worried look, but remained quiet.

“Tell me what to do then, Gemma. Tell me how to save Amy, hidden in the centre of a military base with soldiers, who know I’m coming. And they have been preparing for months, waiting for us to find out that the Amy we’ve been travelling with wasn’t real. That they’ve taken her, taken her from Rory, from us! They’ve already tricked us once, so this time being clever isn’t gonna be enough! This time, raising a gun is the only option we have!”

Gemma listened calmly, even as the Doctor’s voice rose in volume and intensity, and only blinked a couple of times as he finished yelling. The rage shinning in his eyes frightened her, but she didn’t show it as she instead lifted her chin and stared back at him.

“How many casualties?”

“What?”

“You’re going to war. So how many casualties are you expecting, General?” Gemma repeated in an even tone, but spat out the last word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

The Doctor’s face immediately darkened and Gemma felt her heart skip a beat as she knew she had crossed a line.

“Okay, you two,” Jack spoke with a forced smile as he suddenly placed himself between them and addressed Gemma. “Not that I haven’t fantasized about being sandwiched by the two of you, but it’s time for some tea, don’t you think? Maybe a bite to eat, yeah?”

Gemma wasn’t in the mind to protest as Jack gently grabbed her arm and started leading her out of the console room. She managed one look at the Doctor before he was out of sight and found him bend over the console with closed eyes, leaning on his hands and his head hung between his shoulders.

“I’m not wrong,” Gemma spoke as they stepped into the kitchen and she sat down, while Jack filled the kettle with water. He remained quiet as Gemma let out her frustrations.

“This is wrong. The Doctor I just came from, he couldn’t even tolerate the sight of a gun, and now he’s raising an army! And he’s so desperate to get Amy back that he isn’t thinking. Violence begets violence and the more guns you point, the more likely is it that someone will pull the trigger. And then another does the same, and another and another, and what then? Everyone always loses something in a war.

“I want Amy back, and her baby. I care, I really do, but I can’t help but feel we’re rushing into this. As the Doctor said, they’ve been waiting for months, they’re prepared for everything. And here we are, taking up arms and making decisions out of anger and desperation. And it just feels wrong.”

Gemma let out a long sigh as she finished talking and looked up at Jack, who was watching her, leaning against the kitchen counter.

“I’m not sure what to tell you, Red. I’ve never seen the Doctor like this either. He has always been the one to lower the gun, not raise it. But I also agree that this might be the only way. Sometimes all people understand is the barrel at the end of a gun. And it’s not just your friend Amy, who needs saving, but her baby as well.”

“What do I do, Jack?” Gemma muttered into her hands as she buried her face in them, and didn’t look up until a cup was placed in front of her.

“First, you drink your tea. Then you either find a better way, or you do what you can to save Amy and her child, even if it means carrying a gun. In the meantime, I make some food because you look like you’re about to faint.”

Gemma nodded demurely as she pulled the cup closer and breathed in the aromas rising with the steam from the hot tea. Now that she was sitting down, she could feel exhaustion wrap around her like a heavy blanket, and she noticed Jack smile when she yawned loudly.

The silence between them was only filled by the sounds of Jack cooking, and it felt comfortable somehow. When she had finished her tea, Gemma found it harder to keep her head up and leaned over the table, resting it on top of her arms.

Gemma didn’t remember falling asleep and had no idea how much time had passed, when she was suddenly roused awake by Rory’s voice.

“He brought a Silurian aboard the TARDIS! I’ll do anything to save Amy and our child, but I’m honestly not sure about the Silurian,” Rory complained as he entered the kitchen, expecting to find only Gemma inside, and paused in the doorway, when he noticed Jack smiling at him. “Er, hello.”

“Hm?” Gemma hummed in confusion as she sat up straight and looked around the kitchen with bleary eyes. Rory was still in his centurion costume, staring at her with confusion, while Jack had his eyes fixed on Rory.

“Hello, Roman,” Jack greeted with an appreciative smile as he looked Rory up and down before offering his hand.

“Stop it,” Gemma called hoarsely and rubbed her eyes, remembering too late that she was wearing mascara.

“It’s Rory, actually, Rory Williams,” Rory told Jack as he adjusted his clothes, feeling exposed under Jack’s gaze.

“Not a very Roman name,” Jack pointed out with a nod towards the costume, making Rory glance down himself.

“Rory is Amy’s husband. He’s from the twenty-first century,” Gemma explained as she stretched her arms and rolled her neck, which was stiff from sleeping over the table.

“The costume was the Doctor’s idea,” Rory added quickly and moved further inside the room, placing himself closer to Gemma. “Are you one the pilots?”

“Pilots?”

“In the console room, there were two pilots. They were from World War Two, I think,” Rory told as he sat down, looking as tired as Gemma felt.

“Not a pilot, but I did spend some time in London during the war. That’s until I ran into Gemma here. She practically fell into my lap,” Jack told with a teasing smile directed at Gemma, who stood up to get some water.

“Spoilers,” she reminded him as she reached for a glass and filled it at the sink. The nice smell of food then filled her nostrils and she placed a hand over her stomach, when it growled loudly. “How long did I sleep?”

“Only about half an hour. I was afraid I’d wake you if I moved you and I knew you probably wouldn’t go back to sleep.”

“What about the food?”

“It’s cold, but I can heat it up.”

“’S okay. Cold pasta sounds amazing right now,” Gemma said as she lifted the lid off the pot on the stove and looked inside. She could eat practically anything put in front of her at the moment. “You want any, Rory?”

“No thanks.”

“When did you get back, by the way? Where’s River Song?” Gemma questioned as she turned from the stove to look at the companion and there was a brief flash of anger in his eyes.

“Just got back, but I stayed at Stormcage for an hour. Had to tell the guards I was an inspector and the department was trying out new uniforms,” Rory told them as he rubbed his temples and Gemma frowned as he didn’t continue, seemingly avoiding the topic of River Song.

“Stormcage? The prison?” Jack asked in a surprised tone and Gemma turned to look at him, confused as to how he knew about it. He apparently understood her unasked question and answered after a brief pause: “I’m a time agent, born in the fifty-third century. Kinda just got stuck in the twenty-first.”

“Just when you think you know someone,” Gemma muttered with a shake of her head before turning her attention back to Rory. “What about River Song?”

“She didn’t come.”

“What? Why?”

“She said she couldn’t help,” was all Rory told them, but Gemma could easily tell there was more. She wondered if he had told the Doctor the truth, but quickly pushed the thought away, when she felt herself become frustrated.

“Rory, what happened?”

“She said that this was the day you and the Doctor found out who she really was, and that she couldn’t be there until the end. She knew about the battle, the Battle of Demons Run she called it.”

“Did you tell the Doctor?”

“Yes.”

Gemma didn’t have a chance to ask any further questions as they were interrupted by a gravel voice coming from the doorway.

“I am looking for Captain Jack Harkness. The Doctor wants you in the console room.”

A rush of adrenalin startled Gemma out of her tired, confused state and she instinctively reached for Jack’s gun, raising it against the alien as she turned around. Her actions took Jack enough by surprise that he wasn’t fast enough to stop her, and Rory immediately jumped to his feet with a startled yelp.

“Put that gun down, boy! I am only here for the ugly one,” the Sontaran ordered with a finger pointed at Jack, who was standing beside her with his eyes trained on the gun.

“Gemma!” the Doctor shouted as he suddenly slid into view behind the Sontaran and he stared at her with a wide-eyed expression as he ran past the potato-looking alien, placing himself in front of the gun. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“What am I doing?! Why is there a bloody Sontaran on board the TARDIS?” Gemma yelled back as she lowered the gun and let Jack take it out of her hands.

“It’s just Strax! He’s harmless!” the Doctor exclaimed as he waved his arms around and Gemma gaped at him, when the Sontaran opened his mouth again.

“I am not harmless! It will be my honour to meet you on the field of battle and kill you for the glory of the Sontaran Empire!”

“Are you. Fucking. Kidding me?” Gemma questioned in a low voice and glared at the Doctor, who closed his eyes in frustration.

“Jack, Rory, please,” he asked the two men with a gesture towards the door behind him. They both nodded and quickly left the room, pulling Strax with them.

A pregnant silent fell between Gemma and the Doctor as they stared at each other; Gemma breathing heavily as she tried to get her fast beating heart under control.

“I should’ve-“ the Doctor started in an apologetic tone, but Gemma quickly interrupted him.

“Warned me? Yeah, that would’ve been nice. A Sontaran, really? Who else did you call? The Judoon?” Gemma bit out and the brief moment of guilt on the Doctor’s face told her she was right. “Great, just great. Maybe they’ll choke us to death this time. You know, a more hands-on approach. What’s next? The Daleks?”

“Gemma,” the Doctor spoke through gritted teeth and she could tell he was a having a difficult time staying calm.

“Strax is nothing to worry about. He’s a battlefield nurse now and he has a debt to pay. He is no more in contact with the Sontaran Empire than you. And we need the Judoon. They’re not evil, just very single-minded, and they will do exactly as they’re told.”

“You do hear yourself, right?”

“Gemma, please. We can’t keep having this fight over and over again. The Ponds need us, both of us. I need you. And you have to trust me. This is the only way to make sure they’re all safe,” the Doctor spoke, almost sounding as if he was pleading with her, and Gemma didn’t move when he stepped into her personal space.

“And what if someone gets hurt?”

“That’s why we bring help, so no one will.”

“I still don’t like it.”

“But do you trust me?”

“Yes.” Gemma sighed at a brief pause, because she really did, and she felt the Doctor smile against her skin as he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Gemma returned the smile as he pulled away and for a moment she thought he was going to kiss her properly, on the lips, as well. Instead, he rested his hands on her cheeks and gently rubbed the skin beneath her eyes.

“You’re black,” the Doctor told her with a frown and Gemma narrowed her eyes at him, feeling self-conscious of how exhausted she probably looked. She didn’t think the bags under her eyes were black, though.

“Thanks,” she replied sarcastically and the Doctor smiled softly as he pulled away his hands, showing her the black smudge of mascara on his thumbs. “Oh.”

“When was the last time you slept and ate?” the Doctor then asked as he stepped away and looked into the pot where Gemma’s untouched, cold food lay.

“I honestly can’t remember,” Gemma admitted and rubbed herself under the eyes in case there was any mascara left.

In the meantime the Doctor had emptied all of the pasta, which was a small mountain, into a bowl, and Gemma opened her mouth to protest as he then proceeded to bury it in ketchup, but it was too late.

“There you go,” he said proudly as he presented the bowl to her and Gemma accepted it as she shook her head at his antics with a smile on her lips.

She only just managed to grab a fork before he took her by the hand and led her back to the console room, which was now filled with people of all sizes, shapes, and colours.

Rory was standing by the console, sending wary glances towards Vastra as she chatted with Jenny and Strax. Jack was talking to two men, whom she guessed to be the pilots, and flirting not so subtly if the colour in their cheeks were any indication.

Her attention quickly shifted to the large, blue man in front of her, as the Doctor let go of her hand and she came to a full stop.

“Not you again!” the blue man complained loudly, and Gemma watched with a stunned expression as he hastily glanced around the room. “That woman, River Song, where is she?”

“Have you two met before?” the Doctor questioned with a curious look between the small woman and large man, and Gemma shook her head, while the man only groaned in confirmation.

“Well, you have that to look forward to,” the Doctor told Gemma with a smile and then gestured towards the blue man. “Gemma, this is Dorium Maldovar.”

“And I am very much not happy to be here,” Dorium commented, looking as miserable as he sounded, and the Doctor winced as he grabbed Gemma’s hand and pulled her into the pilot’s seat by the console.

As the Doctor had a word with Rory, the other slowly began to gravitate towards the console, and Gemma looked up, when she felt Jack’s presence beside her. It was strange how easily she had come to like him and feel comfortable around him, given her first impression of the Torchwood agent.

“You two kissed and made up?” Jack questioned teasingly and Gemma had half a mind to stab him with her fork just to wipe the smirk off his face. She didn’t notice the Doctor glance at them as he had heard what Jack said and then quickly look away, when the Captain caught his eyes.

“I couldn’t find a better way,” Gemma admitted with a small sigh and dug her fork into the pasta, hoping to distract herself from the knot in her stomach. Maybe she could trick herself into believing it was only because she was hungry.  


	9. The Children of the TARDIS

Gemma and Rory walked silently through the base, searching for Baby Pond; Rory dressed in centurion clothing, his sword drawn and ready, while Gemma was in a black outfit Jack had found in the TARDIS wardrobe.

The sleeveless turtleneck shirt was a bit tight, which she suspected wasn’t a coincidence, but she had accepted the clothes with a roll of her eyes. The pants were made of a stretchable fabric, which clung to her skin, and she wore a pair of long, flat boots on her feet.

It was a bit of a maze the deeper they made it inside the base, but Gemma had the schematics memorized, telling Rory when to turn.

They continued on until the light suddenly flickered and they realized Vastra and Jenny had accomplished their part. Which also meant that the Doctor had revealed himself and was causing panic amongst the soldiers.

They now only had little time to find Madam Kovarian before she managed to escape as they suspected she wouldn’t stick around for the fighting. It was her face Ganger Amy had seen in the wall, which meant she was the one with plans for the baby.

When the base suddenly shook, they knew that the pilots had knocked out the communication systems, preventing the Church from reaching out to other fractions for help. They quickly hid behind a corner, when two soldiers came running past them, and heard a computerized voice coming from the escape shuttle.

“ _Airlock engaged. Shuttle ready for boarding._ ”

Rory didn’t hesitate as he stepped out from the shadows with his sword raised and placed the tip on Madam Kovarian’s shoulder.

“No,” Rory ordered calmly, but with a dark look in his eyes as he placed himself between Kovarian and the shuttle. At her feet stood a white, sealed Moses basket and Gemma knelt beside it, when the baby inside started wailing.

“I have a crew of twenty. How do you expect to gain control of my ship?” Kovarian questioned Rory in a haughty tone and barely spared Gemma a glance as she looked for the switch to open the basket.

Rory didn’t have to answer as the airlock to the shuttle suddenly opened and a tied-up soldier was pushed into the corridor by the pirate captain and his son. Gemma had barely batted an eye when the Doctor had revealed they would have actual pirates helping them.

“The ship is ours, milady.”

They were soon followed by the rest of the crew, which had all been tied up by the pirates, and Rory watched with satisfaction as Kovarian’s face fell in defeat. A mechanical sound then made him look down and the crying of his child became louder as she came into view.

“Hello, darling,” Gemma cooed as she looked down at the crying baby and gently rubbed her stomach. At the sound of a sword being sheeted, she looked up at Rory with a bright smile, and found him staring at them with wide, unblinking eyes.

“Look, daddy’s here,” she told the girl, who slowly stopped crying as her father came into view.

“It’s a girl,” Kovarian informed dryly as she was pushed away by the two Silurians, who had appeared on Gemma’s order, but neither Rory nor Gemma spared her a glance.

“Should I pick her up? I should pick her up, right?” Rory rambled nervously as his daughter wrapped a tiny hand around his finger and Gemma thought the Centurion might start crying.

“Do you know how?” Gemma asked uncertainly as she didn’t know whether Rory had ever held a baby before. Holding such a tiny human being could be nerve-wracking even if you knew how.

“I’m a nurse,” Rory told her without taking his eyes of the baby and Gemma moved back as Rory reached for his daughter, carefully placing her on his arm with the white blanket still wrapped around her.

“She’s beautiful, Rory,” Gemma said as she smiled down at the child, who looked perfectly content in her father’s arms. Gemma lifted herself to her toes and pressed a brief kiss to Rory’s cheek, which he barely seemed to notice as he stared down at his daughter. “Congratulations.”

“I need to go find Amy,” he then spoke with sudden urgency as if he was waking up from a dream and Gemma nodded in agreement.

“You remember the way? I’ll follow Madam Kovarian back to the Doctor. I have a feeling he might need me,” Gemma said as she looked down at Baby Pond, letting the girl take her pinkie, and then back up at Rory, who was watching her with a concerned frown.

They both had a bad feeling about how the Doctor would react, when he came face to face with Amy’s kidnappers. He had already crossed so many lines to find them, so what was one more for the old Time Lord.

“We’ll find you, okay?” she told Rory and cast one last glance at his daughter before she jogged after the Silurians.

It took her less than a minute to catch up with them and Gemma stared straight ahead as she fell into step with Kovarian. The other woman was immaculately dressed in a black dress suit and held her head high, even though she probably knew who she was about to face.

“Gemma Chesterton,” Kovarian spoke without looking at her and a smile curved at the corner of her lips, when she immediately caught Gemma’s attention. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time. Seems you finally found me.”

“Why? Why have you been looking for me?”

Kovarian didn’t answer as she kept staring straight ahead, but she was clearly satisfied that she had unnerved Gemma. Moments later, as they turned a corner, they heard the Doctor’s voice and the sound of it made Gemma walk a little faster.

“No. Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away,” the Doctor spoke calmly, countering the order Strax had given the Colonel to tell his men to withdraw.

“You what?” the Colonel questioned in disbelieve as Gemma made it to the threshold of the room and her eyes quickly found the Doctor, leaned back in a chair by the control console.

With him were also Vastra, Dorium, Jack, and Jenny, who was leading two soldiers out of the room as Gemma walked towards the Doctor. She was stopped by Jack, who grabbed her wrist as she passed him and pulled her back to stand beside him.

“Those words. Run away. I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Run Away. I want children laughing outside your door, because they've found the house of Colonel Run Away,” the Doctor elaborated with an easy smile, which quickly turned into a frown as his anger became more palpable.

The Colonel took a small step back, almost bumping into the weapon Strax was pointing at his back, when the Doctor rose from his chair and strode towards him with fury in his gaze.

“And, when people come to you, and ask if trying to get to me through the people I love,” the Doctor shouted at the Colonel, their faces close together, and Vastra hissed in warning, “is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name.”

“Oh, look, I'm angry. That's new,” the Doctor said with a brief, humourless laugh and glanced to the side to find Gemma staring at him with a troubled look in her eyes. “I'm really not sure what's going to happen now.”

“The anger of a good man is not a problem. Good men have too many rules,” Kovarian spoke from the edge of the room and she almost looked amused with the Doctor’s display of anger.

“Good men don't need rules,” the Doctor said as he slowly turned his head to look at the woman with the eye-patch, who had the decency to look scared as he walked towards her. “Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.”

“Give the order,” Kovarian ordered the Colonel after swallowing the lump in her throat and the Doctor’s face softened in surprise, smiling as he stepped away from her. “Give the order, Colonel Run Away.”

Gemma couldn’t catch the Doctor’s eye as he moved back to the control console, rubbing a hand over his face as he sat back down in the chair. Strax and the Silurians left the room as they escorted the Colonel and Kovarian away, and a tense silence filled the air as anger continued to radiate from the Doctor.

Pulling her wrist out of Jack’s grip with a sigh, Gemma stepped forward and the Doctor looked up at her as she came to stand in front of him. Before he could say anything, Gemma grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room, only stopping when she was sure they were out of hearing range.

“Did that make you feel better?” Gemma asked sarcastically as she pulled them to a stop and released the Doctor’s hand. “All that anger, scaring the shit out of everyone. Do you feel better now?”

“What did you want me to do?” the Doctor hissed at her as he took a step towards her, staring down at her with fire burning in his green eyes. “Forgive them for kidnapping Amy and sent them on their merry way?”

“I want you to be the Doctor,” Gemma bit back and poked his chest hard enough for him to move back. His face softened at her words, but she could still see the anger hidden beneath the mask. “Not all of this. Not this phantom they’re all so scared of, not the leader of an army frightening enough to make soldiers run away, not the Oncoming Storm who becomes the monster in their fairy tales.”

“Amy and her baby are safe. They’re safe with Rory, and I’m not letting you near their daughter unless you let go of all this rage,” Gemma told the Doctor in a firm voice and she watched as his face slowly lit up in a genuine smile.

He didn’t seem bothered with the fact that she had practically forbidden him from seeing Amy and her baby, ordering him around like he was ten and not nine hundred-something.

“Amy and Rory have a daughter?” the Doctor asked with a lightness that surprised her and Gemma smiled despite herself as she nodded.

“She’s beautiful.”

Gemma let out a small gasp as she wasn’t prepared for what happened next, and she grabbed the Doctor’s shoulders for balance, when he wrapped an arm around her waist and pressed his lips against hers.

The kiss was rushed, like they were finally letting go of pent-up tension, and Gemma found herself responding before she suddenly remembered it wasn’t something she was supposed to be doing.

With some effort she managed to recollect her self-control and pushed the Doctor away, smacking him on the arm as she stepped out of his embrace.

“Stop bloody kissing me all the time!” she scolded him breathlessly and the Doctor looked slightly guilty even as he grinned at her.

“Might I remind you, you kissed me the last time.”

“That was not the same at all.”

“Never mind that, let’s go find the Ponds.” The Doctor waved it off and grabbed her hand as they ran down the corridor towards Amy’s spacious cell. 

“You do know you can’t just go around kissing people, right?”

“Well, that’s just boring, isn’t it?” the Doctor said as they reached the open door to a big, white room and paused in the doorway on top of a staircase, when they saw Rory and Amy kissing.

“Urgh. Kissing and crying,” the Doctor complained with a grimace and Gemma scowled at him as he turned to leave the room. “I'll, I'll be back in a bit.”

“Oi, you two. Get in here, now,” Rory called with a thick voice from inside the room and Gemma was quickly down the stairs, while the Doctor giddily followed her.

She could tell that Rory had been crying, but decided not to embarrass him and moved on to hug Amy instead.

“Hello, Laura Croft.” Amy laughed with her eyebrows raised at Gemma’s outfit and Gemma lifted a finger in objection.

“For the record, not my idea.”

“My daughter,” Rory presented to the Doctor behind them and they both turned their attention to the two men. “What do you think?”

“Hello,” the Doctor greeted the child with a small shake of her hand and seemed unsure of what to call her. “Hello, er, baby.”

“Melody,” Amy told them and Gemma stroked the soft, dark hairs on Melody’s head with a smile. It was a perfect name.  

“Melody?” the Doctor repeated, equally excited about the name and looked back down at the baby. “Hello, Melody Pond.”

“Melody Williams,” Rory corrected with a sideways look at the Doctor, but was quickly rebutted by his wife.

“Is a geography teacher. Melody Pond is a superhero.”

“Well yes, I suppose she does smell nice,” the Doctor said as he leaned down to listen to the noises Melody was making, and they all looked at him in confusion. “Never really sniffed her. Maybe I should give it a go.”

“Amelia Pond, come here,” he told Amy as he reached out for her and pulled her into a hug. Gemma noticed with a slight laugh that he actually sniffed her hair.

“Would you like to hold her?” Rory asked her suddenly, drawing Gemma’s attention away from Amy and the Doctor, and she looked at him in surprise.

“It’s okay, Rory. You just got her back,” Gemma replied with a shake of her head, but Rory was already placing the small bundle in her arms. A warm feeling spread in her stomach as she looked down into Melody’s blue eyes.  

“I knew you were coming,” Amy told them with a smile as her hug with the Doctor ended and she looked at the three of them. “All of you. My boys and my princess.”

“It's okay,” the Doctor assured Melody as she gurgled in Gemma’s arms. “She's still all yours. And really, you should call her mummy, not Big Milk Thing.”

“Okay, what are you doing?” Amy finally asked after sharing a look with Gemma and Rory.

“I speak Baby,” the Doctor told them confidently and Gemma pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t laugh.

“No, you don't.”

“I speak everything. Don't I, Melody Pond?” the Doctor addressed the girl, who made another noise as she pointed her tongue at him. The Time Lord stood up straight as he fiddled with his bowtie. “No, it's not. It's cool.”

Their moment of levity was interrupted by Vastra and Jack, who ran into the room, and the latter skipped down the stairs with a smile.  

“Doctor? Take a look. They're leaving,” Vastra called to get their attention and the Doctor walked over to the wide panorama window to watch the soldiers be led away by the Silurians. “Demon's Run is ours without a drop of blood spilled. My friend, you have never risen higher.”

Gemma noticed Rory’s face fall out of the corner of her eye and watched as he turned to look at the Doctor with a worried expression. Her attention was diverted by Jack, who stopped in front of Amy and shook her hand, making Amy frown at the smiling man in front of her.

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Captain Jack Harkness, and I’m guessing you’re the illustrious Amy Pond. Love the hair by the way,” Jack greeted and winked at her, making Amy blush deeply while Rory glared at him.

“Stop it,” Gemma and the Doctor choired, and Jack quickly moved on to the baby in Gemma’s arms, who gurgled at the sight of him.

“Well, I think you’re pretty too,” Jack cooed at the baby and tickled her stomach.

“Does he speak Baby too?” Gemma heard Amy ask her husband, who grumbled something unintelligible in response. Gemma wasn’t sure if the Doctor actually spoke Baby, but she was certain Jack didn’t.

“I must say, this suits you,” Jack told Gemma with a smirk and there was a teasing gleam in his eyes that made Gemma glare at him as he glanced at the Doctor.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t you dare say it.”

\----------

Despite Melody’s crying, Gemma felt a bit calmer now that she was back in the TARDIS. All the soldiers of the Church were being escorted to shuttles, which would take them away from Demons Run – they were running away as they had been ordered – and almost everyone had been returned to their own time.

Now, all there was left was them to find out why they were here, why someone had taken Amy, why Melody was so important. Kovarian’s words still rummaged in her mind, but she was yet to tell anyone. Why would the woman have been searching for her?

“Gemma, please. Could you turn it off?” Amy moaned as she bounced her crying daughter in her arms, but Gemma could only smile apologetically.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know how. I probably will punch a hole in the time-space continuum if I try.”

The Doctor had refused to turn off whatever noises that were making Melody cry for the same reason and had then left the console room, muttering under his breath about Amy not listening.

At first Amy frowned at Gemma’s inability to control the TARDIS, but then nodded in understanding before leaving the blue box to join her husband outside.

Moments later the Doctor walked back into the console room with a wooden cot in his arms and Gemma followed him towards the open doors of the TARDIS.

Outside they could hear Melody crying and Strax was in the midst of telling Rory about his ability to breastfeed, when the Doctor loudly interrupted him.

“She's not hungry, she's tired,” the Doctor explained as they stepped out of the TARDIS and he placed the cot in the middle of the hangar they were parked in. “Sorry, Melody, they're just not listening.”

“What's this?” Amy cooed as she smiled at Melody, who stopped crying and started gurgling happily. Gemma made a funny face at the girl, who managed to get hold of Gemma’s red hair and tugged at it.

“Very pretty, according to your daughter,” the Doctor answered in the same tone as Amy, and adjusted the orray dangling above it.

“It's a cot,” Rory stated blankly as he tried to figure out why the Doctor owned a cot.

“No flies on the Roman,” the Doctor said before reaching out for Melody, so he could place her in the cot. At first Gemma was pulled along by a lock of her hair, but luckily Melody let go as the Doctor took her from Amy. “Give her here.”

“But where would you get a cot?” Rory questioned with a frown, still confused about how it had got there.  

“It's old. Really old,” Amy noted curiously and shared a look with her husband before they both glanced at Gemma and the Doctor, who were both watching Melody in the cot. “Doctor, er, do you have children?”

“No,” the Doctor said after a beat and Gemma fixed her eyes on Melody, not willing to give away anything the Doctor didn’t want to tell. She could feel Amy’s eyes rest on her, but pretended not to notice as she smiled down at Melody.

“Have you ever had children?”

“No, it's real. It's my hair,” the Doctor told Melody as he touched his hair, ignoring the question, and Gemma found it harder to keep the smile on her face.

She didn’t know much about his life on Gallifrey, but if he had a granddaughter that had to mean that he once had children, or a child, as well. Children, who were gone. And then there was Jenny.

“Who slept in here?” Amy continued prodding and Gemma drew in breath to answer, lie or not, when Vastra called over the speakers.

“Doctor, Gemma, we need you in the main control room.”

“Be right there!” the Doctor yelled back and then turned to his companions. “Things to do. I've still got to work out what this base is for. We can't leave till we know.”

“But this is where I was?” Amy asked and followed the Doctor as he moved away from the cot. “The whole time I thought I was on the Tardis, I was really here?”

For a moment the Doctor just watched Amy, unsure of how to explain everything without freaking Amy out. He reached forward and pulled the redhead into a tight hug, sighing as he briefly closed his eyes.

“You were on the TARDIS, too. Your heart, your mind, your soul. But physically, yes, you were still in this place,” the Doctor explained to Amy in a low voice, but loud enough that Rory and Gemma could hear.

“And when I saw that face looking through the hatch, that woman looking at me.”

“Reality bleeding through. They must have taken you quite a while back. Just before America,” the Doctor thought out loud and didn’t pay attention to the fact that America was still in Gemma’s future.

“That's probably enough hugging now,” Rory interjected, making Amy and the Time Lord break apart and return to the cot. “So her Flesh avatar was with us all that time. But that means they were projecting a control signal right into the TARDIS wherever we were in time and space.”

“They're very clever,” Gemma conceded with a worried frown as a troubling thought crossed her mind.

Taking control of Demons Run had been easy. Even Madam Kovarian had been quick to cooperate as if a months’ long plan hadn’t just been ruined.

“Who are?” Amy asked with a look between Gemma and the Doctor, but it was Rory who answered.

“Whoever wants our baby.”

“But why do they want her?”

“Exactly,” the Doctor commented with his eyes suddenly fixed at Gemma as if he could tell what was going on inside her mind.

“Is there anything you're not telling us?” Rory urged as he turned fully towards the Doctor, who smiled in return because Rory was too observant sometimes. “You knew Amy wasn't real. You never said.”

“Well, I couldn't be sure they weren't listening,” the Doctor told them in a whisper, but his eyes shifted back to Gemma, who was staring into the dark corners of the hangar as if she expected someone to jump out.  

“But you always hold out on us. Please, not this time. Doctor, it's our baby. Tell us something. One little thing,” Amy begged as the Doctor stepped away from the cot and grabbed Gemma’s hand, pulling her with him.

“It's mine,” he spoke with a solemn expression on his face and Gemma squeezed his hand, knowing that he might not be telling the truth.

“What is?” Rory questioned, looking worried for a moment, but relaxed when the Doctor pointed at the cot.

“The cot. It's my cot. I slept in there.”

“You’re thinking,” the Doctor muttered as they walked away from Amy and Rory towards the control room, where Vastra had called them to. “Loudly.”

“I’m just worried this was all too easy. Kovarian, she’s clever and she’s been planning for months. Don’t you think she expected this? For you to pull a rabbit out of a hat and suddenly we’ve won without a single drop of blood spilled?”

“A rabbit out of a hat? I should try that someday. Could be fun. Or maybe something bigger than a rabbit. I need to find a big hat as well, though. You think a fez will do?” the Doctor mused as he led Gemma down a corridor, but was pulled to a stop when she tugged on his hand.

“I’m serious, Doctor,” Gemma hissed as she grew frustrated with his silliness and overconfidence. All she wanted was to go back to the TARDIS and fly away, but they still had questions they needed answered.

“Everything will be alright, Gemma. I promise. The soldiers and monks are gone, even the Judoon left. The Ponds are safe and so are you,” the Doctor assured her as he moved a lock of her hair behind her ear and they maintained eye contact for a long moment before he once again pulled her with him. “Now, come along.”

Gemma opened her mouth to protest, but changed her mind as they arrived in the control room. She realised how paranoid she sounded and decided to simply trust the Doctor instead. They were fine. Everything would be fine.  

“You've hacked into their software, then?” the Doctor asked Dorium, letting go of Gemma’s hand to place it on the blue man’s shoulder.

Dorium was sat before the control console, studying the screen in front of him, while Jack was stood on his left side and Vastra a couple of metres behind them.

Gemma placed herself beside Jack to look at the screen, but the results didn’t make much sense to her. It seemed to be an analysis of Melody’s DNA, but the results showed an unknown genetic code, which wasn’t human.

“I believe I sold it to them.”

“Ooh. So what have we learned?” the Doctor questioned happily, but, like Gemma, Vastra seemed intent on not letting the Doctor act as if everything was as it should be.

“That anger is always the shortest distance to a mistake,” Vastra spoke in a dry tone from the back of the room and the Doctor turned his head in surprise.  

“I'm sorry?”

“The words of an old friend,” Vastra told and a light smile appeared on the Doctor’s face as he walked to her, while Gemma followed them with her eyes, “who once found me in the London Underground, attempting to avenge my sisters on perfectly innocent tunnel diggers.”

“Well, you were very cross at the time.”

“As you were today, old friend. Point taken, I hope,” Vastra replied with a meaningful look at the Doctor, who briefly made eye contact with Gemma as he nodded.

He then turned his back to the group to stare out of the round window in the back of the room, but Vastra continued: “Now, I have a question. A simple one. Is Melody human?”

“Sorry, what?” the Doctor spun around in surprise and laughed at Vastra’s implication. “Of course she is. Completely human. What are you talking about?”

“They've been scanning her since she was born, and I think they found what they were looking for,” Dorium elaborated and Gemma immediately turned her attention back to the computer screen, realising she hadn’t misread the DNA results.  

“Human DNA,” the Doctor brushed off as he came to stand beside Dorium, who was zooming in on the DNA strand on the screen.

“Look closer, Doctor. There’s something else,” Jack instructed with a nod towards the screen and Gemma unknowingly pressed her lips together; uncertain of what she was looking at.

“Human plus,” Vastra supplied as she walked up behind the Doctor. “Specifically, human plus Time Lord.”

Gemma’s lips parted in shock over the news while the Doctor stepped away from the computer, pulling at his hair in a way that reminded Gemma of his previous incarnation.

“But she's human. She's Amy and Rory's daughter!” the Doctor argued as he turned to Vastra and stared at her as if he thought she was making fun of him.

“You've told me about your people. They became what they did through prolonged exposure to the time vortex,” Vastra reminded him calmly and the Doctor sent Gemma, Jack and Dorium an incredulous smile while pointing at the talking lizard as if she was crazy. “The Untempered Schism.”

“Over billions of years,” the Doctor argued with wide hand gestures, getting the sense that they all actually believed it was possible for Melody to be part Time Lord. “It didn't just happen.”

“So how close is she? Could she even regenerate?” Vastra questioned as the Doctor turned his back on her and came to a brief stop as he thought about it.

Vastra’s words had made Gemma pause as well and she glanced between the Doctor and the computer screen with wide eyes, wondering if maybe she had something genetically in common with Melody.

“No, no. I don't think so,” the Doctor finally said and found Gemma staring at him, seemingly in the middle of an existential crisis.

“You don't sound so sure,” Vastra commented while the Doctor began to pace the floor and she could tell he, despite his better judgement, was starting to believe them.   

“Because I don't understand how this happened.”

“When did it happen?” Jack asked casually with an eyebrow raised and Gemma was pulled out of her disordered thoughts as they all stared at the Doctor expectantly.

“When?” the Doctor echoed in a startled voice and looked as if the question had somehow offended him.  

“When did this baby… begin?” Vastra reiterated, searching for the correct word that would make him comprehend what they were asking. A look of understanding crossed his features and his eyes briefly moved to Gemma.

“Oh, you mean…”

“Exactly.” Jack grinned at the blushing Doctor, who knew he had been caught looking at Gemma by the former time agent.  

“Well, how would I know?” the Doctor started ranting while he adjusted his bowtie, and Gemma tried to hide her amusement with how flustered he was. “That's all human-y, private stuff. It just sort of goes on. They don't put up a balloon, or anything.”

“But could the child have begun on the TARDIS in flight, in the vortex,” Vastra called after the Doctor, when it looked like he was about to leave the room entirely.

Gemma had been thinking the exact same and stepped forward, eager to hear the answer.  

“No! No, impossible! It's all running about, sexy fish vampires and blowing up stuff,” the Doctor exclaimed as he waved with his hand excitedly, remembering all the fun he had with Gemma and the Ponds.

“And Rory wasn't even there at the beginning. Then he was- well, that’s a lot of spoilers, but it’s a long story. So, technically the first time they were on the TARDIS together in this version of reality, was on their w-“

The Doctor had a realisation in the middle of a word and his otherwise relaxed posture, leaning against a wall, changed. His cheeks were blown out as if the unsaid word had now filled his mouth.

“On their what?” 

“On their wedding night,” the Doctor revealed, looking as if he was in big trouble, which wasn’t wrong as Gemma spoke next.

“So Melody was conceived on board the TARDIS like me. She’s like me then?” Gemma concluded with an inquisitive look at the Doctor, who walked past her to get another look at the results on the screen.

Gemma was confused, both by the whole situation and the fact that the Doctor was basically ignoring her, and she glanced at Jack for help. He was from her future. Maybe he knew something.

“No,” the Doctor then answered with his back to her at the same time as Jack told her “yes”.

The two men turned to each other and seemed to have a silent conversation with their eyes, which ended with the Doctor pinching the bridge of his nose as if a headache was forming.

“What is it?” Gemma questioned frustratingly, waiting impatiently for the two men to finish their silent talk. “Yes or no?”

She could feel her heart pump faster with anticipation of finally getting some answers and she was going to kick something if they didn’t come soon.

“Both.” The Doctor sighed as he turned to her and he moved to stand in front of her, when an angry frown set on Gemma’s face. “The part of you that’s not human, it’s Time Lord.”

“What?”

Even though she had half figured that part out already, she took a step back in surprise. One thing was her own quiet theories, but another was hearing the Doctor say it out loud.

“Gemma…”

“You knew? From the beginning, you knew, and yet you forced this upon me? You lied, so what? I could be with you forever? Never settling down and living a normal life. What’s wrong with you?”

“You don’t understand. It’s more complicated than that. So much more.”

“Then explain it to me!” Gemma exclaimed angrily. She could sense the others becoming increasingly more uncomfortable with the situation, but didn’t really care. “You did lie to me, didn’t you? When I asked you, multiple times, why I was able to regenerate, you told me you didn’t know.”

“Yes,” was all the Doctor could say and there was a look of deep regret in his eyes, which Gemma at the moment found it hard to care about.

“Why?” Gemma asked in a small voice and crossed her arms in front of her; her anger deflating into sadness and distrust with the Doctor’s admission.

“You were the one who told me that you are part Time Lord. You knew long before I did and I couldn’t tell you, because this is how you found out.”

“So all of this, it will happen to Melody as well?” Gemma asked with a gesture towards the rest of the room and the Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“No. You can't just cook yourself a Time Lord. It doesn’t make sense with Melody,” the Doctor said, dismissing the idea despite the living proof standing in front of him. 

“Of course not,” Vastra agreed, sensing that the argument between the two time travellers was over for now. “But you gave them one hell of a start, and they've been working very hard ever since.”

“And yet they gave in so easily. Does this not that bother anyone else?” Dorium added, but was interrupted by Gemma.

“No, hold on,” Gemma spoke with a raised hand as she had only gotten half of the answers she wanted. “How is Melody different from me? We’re the same, aren’t we? Both part human, part Time Lord.”

“It’s you that’s different, Red.” Jack interjected, making Gemma look at him.

There was still some hidden anger in her eyes, burning red like the colour of her hair, and Jack felt lucky he had never been on the receiving end of it until now.

“How?” she asked in a stern voice, demanding answers they couldn’t give her, and Jack smiled sadly before replying.

“Spoilers.”

“Can I borrow your sword?” Gemma asked Vastra with a nod towards the weapon on her back and the Silurian had trouble reading the blank expression on Gemma’s face, not knowing if she was being serious or not.

The Doctor quickly shook his head, when Vastra started reaching for the sword, and rested a hand against the side of her head, turning Gemma’s attention away from Jack.

“I’m sorry, I wish we could tell you everything, but too much depends on it.”

“Maybe, for once, I don’t care,” Gemma muttered to herself and stepped out of the Doctor’s reach. He looked hurt by her rejection, but let her be.

“Amy. She worried the baby would have a time head. She said that, that-“ the Doctor remembered in the following silence and Gemma closed her eyes to think. There was something else bugging her.

“Only you would ignore the instincts of a mother,” Vastra complained while Dorium rose from his chair with growing concern.

“Or the instincts of a coward. This is too easy. There's something wrong.”

“UNIT did tests of me, after I regenerated. They found nothing, no Time Lord DNA,” Gemma said, ignoring Dorium’s suspicions despite feeling the same, when she found another missing piece of the puzzle and Jack stepped forward.

“That would be me.”

“You what?”

“You asked me once, or will ask me, to do something for you if I ever found myself in nineteen sixty-six. You knew I would, of course. I had to find a little girl, still a baby, and implant a bio dampener in her. Someone was after her, you said, and it would protect her.”

“But my regeneration, wouldn’t it have fried the implant or something? Is it still in me?” Gemma questioned and self-consciously rubbed her arm, feeling as if something was crawling underneath her skin.

“It’s still in you, but won’t show up on any tests. You were the one who gave it to me. And I figured the implant had been fried, so I made another bio dampener, just in case.” 

“How?” Gemma asked with a troubled expression, thinking that another implant had been put in her and Jack had somehow made her forget.

“The bracelet,” Jack informed, pointing down at Charles’ gift clasped around her wrist, and Gemma stared at it in surprise. “You rarely took it off and I made the frequency high enough that it would affect your molecular structure for a day or so after you stopped wearing it.”

“That time I thought I’d lost it, that was you?”

“Probably.”

“Did anyone hear that?” Vastra asked suddenly, tilting her head towards the open corridor, and they all became silent to listen. None of them heard a sound.   

“Mister Maldovar, you're right. This was too easy. We should get back to the others,” Vastra concluded anyway and drew her sword before turning to Jack. “Captain Harkness?”

“I’ll be right with you,” Jack told the Silurian, who took off with Dorium on her heels, heaving for air. Jack looked at Gemma and the Doctor one last time before disappearing as well. “You two, behave.”

Left alone with the Doctor, Gemma stood undecidedly in the middle of the room. The Doctor stood with his back to her, staring at the computer screen; deep in thought.

“Why even do it?” the Doctor thought out loud and Gemma walked to his side, making him look at her as their arms brushed against each other. Their fight was laid to rest, for now. “Even if you could get your hands on a brand new Time Lord, what for?”

“A weapon?” Gemma suggested after a long moment of hesitation and exhaled slowly before meeting the Doctor’s gaze.

“Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?”

“They've seen you, darling,” Gemma replied carefully and turned her body to fully face the Doctor, who did the same. 

“Me?” the Doctor questioned in surprise and Gemma found it difficult to look at him as his face fell in realisation. Slowly, he sat down on the chair behind him and Gemma took the one beside it.

“Me?” the Doctor echoed in a whisper and Gemma took his hand between hers as he closed his eyes.

“I see you accessed our files,” Madam Kovarian’s voice suddenly rang out from behind them and Gemma jumped out of her chair in surprise. “Do you understand yet?”

“Oh, don't worry, I'm a long way away,” Kovarian continued smugly as the Doctor stood up as well and he smiled humourlessly at the woman. “But I like to keep tabs on you. The child, then. What do you think?”

“What is she?” the Doctor questioned with a strong hint of anger in his voice.

“Hope. Hope in this endless, bitter war,” Kovarian bit back and Gemma knew she had been right about Melody being a weapon against the Doctor. She wished she hadn’t been. It would add to the many things the Doctor already blamed himself for.

“What war? Against who?”

“Against you, Doctor,” Kovarian revealed and the Doctor turned his eyes to Gemma before he walked away from the screen with fist clenched in anger.

“A child is not a weapon!” he yelled at Kovarian as he turned back towards the screen, but the woman didn’t seem unsettled by the Doctor’s rage.  

“Oh, give us time. She can be. She will be.”

“Except you've already lost her, and I swear I will never let you anywhere near her again,” the Doctor vowed to Kovarian, whose eye suddenly shone with a triumphant gleam.  

“Oh, Doctor. Fooling you once was a joy, but fooling you twice the same way? It's a privilege,” she sneered at him and Gemma’s heart dropped to her stomach as she figured out what Kovarian meant.

“Amy… Amy,” the Doctor muttered with a wide-eyed look and sprinted out of the room without another look at either Kovarian or Gemma.

For a moment she just stared after him before she turned to Kovarian, who looked like the cat that ate the canary. The woman’s smile didn’t falter as she turned her gaze on Gemma, who stared back defiantly. She needed one last answer.

“You said you had been searching for me. Why?”

“Melody Pond wasn’t our first choice. You were.”

“Why me?”

“We never knew much about you except for your ability to regenerate and your constant presence at the Doctor’s side. You seemed the perfect candidate for our plan. But we could never find you. You were untraceable. And the rare moments we came close, someone was always there to stop us.”

 _Jack_ , Gemma thought with a fond smile, but it quickly fell as she continued to glare at Kovarian.

“I’ve been to the future, you know. You won’t succeed. Whatever your plan is, he’ll beat you like he always does,” Gemma promised the woman in a steely voice, which only made Kovarian smile.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Miss Chesterton, but soon the Doctor won’t have a future. And neither will you.”

Gemma’s hands shook as she abruptly ended the call and Kovarian’s face disappeared from the screen. The Doctor had a future, she told herself sternly. Whatever Kovarian’s plan was, it would fail. It had to.

Not wasting more time to think about Kovarian’s threats, Gemma ran out of the room and back towards the TARDIS. She gasped for air when the door to the hangar hissed open and she took in the scene in front of her.

There were fires lit around the room from the battle that had ensued and a few bodies lay scattered on the floor around the TARDIS. Most of them were Headless Monks, but Gemma saw Strax sitting on the floor, resting against a box and breathing heavily. Rory was crouched beside him and they talked in low voices, while the Doctor watched.

The Time Lord was stood with his back to her, but it was easy for her to imagine the look on his face. Amy was sitting, childless, with Jenny on a box near the TARDIS, and Gemma followed the Doctor as he walked towards them.

“So they took her anyway. All this was for nothing,” Amy spoke with tears in her eyes as they came to stand beside her and the Doctor wrung his hands, unable to find the right words to say.  

“I am so sorry,” he told her, his voice heavy with regret, and reached for Amy as she stood up.

Gemma could practically hear the Doctor’s hearts break, when Amy flinched away from him, and she wrapped a hand around his arm, squeezing it in support.

“Amy, it's not his fault,” Jenny said from her seat on the box and Amy nodded as a sob made her chest heave.

“I know, I know.”

Rory stepped around the Doctor and Gemma to follow his wife, when she turned her back on them and started crying. Gemma felt her own heart clench with sadness and stepped in front of the Doctor, when Vastra appeared behind Amy and Rory.  

“Doctor, there's someone who wants to speak to you. Her name is Lorna. She came to warn us,” she told the Doctor, who cast another look towards Amy and Rory before following the Silurian.

Gemma’s hand left his arm as he stepped forward and she was about to follow, when she noticed a figure out of the corner of her eye lying on the floor near the Doctor’s cot.

“Jack,” she breathed and the Doctor halted, when he caught sight of the body as well. Gemma gave him a small nod as their eyes met, and he walked after Vastra while Gemma kneeled beside Jack’s body.

Except for the scorched mark on his chest, Jack mostly looked as if he had fallen unconscious, and Gemma carefully fingered the tear in his shirt, finding that the skin underneath had almost fully healed.

“I’m really sorry, Gemma,” Rory spoke quietly as crouched down on the other side of the body and Gemma nodded at him as she leaned down to listen to his non-existent breathing. “He was a good man. I owe him my life.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Gemma muttered as she sat down, her legs bend underneath her, and watched her new friend expectantly.

She wasn’t sure how long a hole in the chest took to come back from, but she figured it was only a matter of a few minutes, at most. His skin was healed, but kick-starting ones bodily function was a bit more difficult, she imagined.

“Sorry, what?” Rory questioned with a deep frown as he had heard her and there was a good chance he thought Gemma was crazy when she smiled at him.

“The thing is… Jack doesn’t really die. Well, he is dead now, but he’ll come back. Give it a minute or two.”

“That makes absolutely no sense.”

“I know. But none of this really does,” Gemma said and briefly glanced at Amy, who was standing alone by the TARDIS, hugging herself. Rory made an agreeing sound and turned his eyes to Jack, staring at the body thoughtfully.

“But how does he do it?”

Gemma was about to tell him that she had no idea, when Jack sat up with a loud gasp and Rory jumped to his feet in surprise.

“Like that, I suppose,” Gemma noted with a smile and stood up, grabbing Jack’s hand to help him off the floor. “That was interesting.”

“It also hurt like hell,” Jack moaned as he rubbed his chest and then rolled his shoulders as if he was feeling sore.

“I have no idea what just happened, but, er, thanks for saving my life,” Rory spoke with a wide-eyed look on his face as he offered Jack his hand.

“Anytime, Centurion,” Jack replied with a wink and Rory just nodded as he left Gemma and Jack to go back to his shocked wife, who had no idea what was going on.

“Where’s the Doctor?” Jack asked as he turned to Gemma and felt his own heart sink, when her face fell. “Is the baby okay?”

“They took her. Kovarian tricked us and escaped with the real Melody. The Melody we had, she was Flesh.”

“I’m sorry,” Jack told her before he pulled her into a hug. Feeling too exhausted to think of protesting, she melted into his embrace and sighed.

A bright flash of light broke them apart and Gemma blinked in surprise, when she found a woman with big, curly hair standing in their midst. Beside her Jack quickly drew his gun, while Gemma took a step forward.

“Hello, sweetie,” the woman greeted her with a warm smile, when she noticed Gemma standing to her right by the cot.

“Who are you?”

“Oh. Well, I suppose that explains a lot,” the woman noted with a slightly disappointed expression on her face, but didn’t seem surprised that Gemma didn’t know her.

The Doctor uttering the woman’s name interrupted their introduction and Gemma realised River Song had finally joined them.

“Well then, soldier. How goes the day?” River called as she turned to the Time Lord, but her question was obviously rhetoric. Somehow she already knew what had happened at Demons Run.

“Where the hell have you been?” the Doctor yelled angrily as he strode towards River, who remained calm in the face of his rage. “Every time you've asked, we have been there. Where the hell were you today?”

“I couldn't have prevented this.”

“You could have tried!”

“And so, my love, could you,” River replied coolly when the Doctor turned his back on her, and Gemma didn’t know if she was more surprised by how calm River was being or the fact she had called him ‘my love’.

“I know you're not all right,” River continued as she looked to her left, where Rory and Amy were stood. “But hold tight, Amy, because you're going to be.”

“You think I wanted this?” the Doctor questioned as he turned towards River once more, pointing at the mess around him. “I didn't do this. This, this wasn't me!”

“This was exactly you. All this. All of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name,” River told in a stern voice and the Doctor seemed to pause as if he was finally listening.

“Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean?” River spoke as she slowly walked around the Doctor, sharing a moment of eye contact with Gemma, who was listening intently.

“To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends, and they're going to turn her into a weapon just to bring you down. And all this, my love, in fear of you.”

There was a dark look in the Doctor’s eyes as he stared down at River, and Gemma couldn’t tell if he was smiling or sneering at her.  

“Who are you?”

“Oh look, your cot. Haven't seen that in a very long while,” River exclaimed with an excited smile on her face as she suddenly skipped backwards to where Gemma was standing and paused on the other side of the cot.

“No, no, you tell me,” the Doctor demanded as he quickly followed and wrapped his hand tightly around River’s wrist. “Tell me who you are.”

“I am telling you,” River replied slowly and then looked at Gemma, nodding discreetly at the cot as she carefully removed the Doctor’s hand from her wrist. “Can't you read?”

Despite her own confusion, Gemma followed River’s silent instructions and looked into the cot. On Melody’s white blanket lay the prayer leaf a female soldier had given to Amy before they had come for her.

Amy had told Gemma that the strange symbols on each side were Melody’s name, even though she didn’t know the language. For a long moment Gemma couldn’t understand the symbols either and she was about to look away, when an English word suddenly replaced it.

Gemma’s eyes snapped upwards in surprise and a wide smile spread on her lips as she looked at the Doctor, who had seen the same. ‘ _River_ ’ _._ Gemma didn’t have to turn the leave to know the other side read ‘ _Song_ ’.

“Hello,” the Doctor said after a long moment and there was a soft look in his eyes, which almost made Gemma giggle. There was a bubbly feeling in her stomach and she pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t laugh in relief.

She still knew very little of River Song, and even though she had somehow ended up in prison, it made her hopeful to see the grown-up Melody Pond standing in front of her. In the end, she would be alright. They would get her back.

“Hello,” River told the Doctor with a smile of her own and the Time Lord let out a high pitched laugh.

“But, but that means-“ The Doctor grinned without finishing his sentence, but River seemed to know what he meant.

“I'm afraid it does.”

Behind them stood Amy and Rory, staring at them in confusion and the Doctor smiled brightly as he clapped his hands and glanced at them over his shoulder.

“Ooh. But you and I, and you and Gemma…” the Doctor continued with wide eyes and pointed between him and River, then Gemma and River.

Gemma watched the two with her lips parted in surprise as she had a good guess to what the Doctor was referring to. A deep blush warmed her cheeks, when River looked at her and winked before answering the Doctor.

“Yes.”

The Doctor laughed once more and rubbed his hands in excitement before suddenly straightening up and adjusting his bowtie.

“How do we look?” he asked with a gesture towards himself and Gemma, who blushed even harder when River let her gaze wander over her tight, black outfit. Despite herself Gemma raised an eyebrow and stared back.

River Song was beautiful with voluminous, dark blonde hair and a bright smile, which lit up her eyes. She looked about Gemma’s age in actual years unless of course she had at some point regenerated to look older or younger than she really was.

“Amazing,” River told the Doctor, who grinned widely and took a spin around himself before grabbing Gemma’s hand.

“Jack, Vastra and Jenny, till the next time,” he called in goodbye and then turned to their companions, who still had no idea what was going on. “Rory and Amy, we know where to find your daughter, and on our lives, she will be safe. River, get them all home.”

“Doctor! Gemma!” Rory yelled at them as they ran to the TARDIS and the Doctor quickly disabled the force field the Headless Monks had put up around the blue box.

“No! Where are you going?” Amy called and ran to the TARDIS as Gemma and the Doctor jumped inside. The Doctor took a brief moment to look at River one more time before he closed the doors behind him and ran to the console.

“Doctor, I know you’re excited, but did we have to leave them there?” Gemma asked as the TARDIS took off and she grabbed the edge of the console so she wouldn’t fall.

“Amy and Rory, they need some time with their daughter. And River can easily get the others home with her vortex manipulator,” the Doctor explained as he studied the screen in front of him intently. Gemma narrowed her eyes at him, when she moved to stand beside him and he tilted the screen away from her.

“Are you saying the vortex manipulator is more precise than the TARDIS then?” Gemma teased as she moved to look at the screen once more and the Doctor once again stopped her from doing so.

“Oi! Don’t insult my TARDIS!” the Doctor exclaimed as the TARDIS landed and he turned off the screen.

“Fine. Now what was on that screen and why can’t I see it?” Gemma questioned as she followed the Doctor around the console until he finally turned around and they almost collided.    

“It’s where we last saw Melody at her youngest. I think.”

“And?”

“You haven’t been there yet.”

“How do you know?” Gemma challenged with a raised eyebrow and was glad that he hadn’t yet used the word ‘spoiler’, even though she knew it was coming.

“I just do,” the Doctor told her with a heavy sigh and Gemma saw how his eyes had suddenly turned dark compared to how they were lit up with excitement moments ago.

“Are you okay?” Gemma asked as she tried to make eye contact with him and placed her hand on top of his, where it was resting on the console.

The Doctor smiled mirthlessly and stepped forward and pressed his lips to her forehead as if he was trying to kiss the frown on her face away. Gemma held back a frustrated sigh, when the Doctor pulled away and looked down at her. She knew he was going to lie.

“I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Now, all we have to do is find Melody and everything will be perfect.”

“I suppose we now know why I’ve always trusted River Song,” Gemma said as she remembered what the Doctor had previously told her about her relationship to River Song. “I’ve always known she was Melody.”

“Remember, you can’t tell me. That goes for Rory and Amy as well.”

“I know, I know.” Gemma sighed, suddenly feeling very tired, and squeezed the Doctor’s hand. “Doctor, what happened at Demons Run…”

“You were right,” the Doctor spoke with a regretful look in his eyes and Gemma wrapped her arms around his neck; for once initiating the hug herself.

“Yeah, and it sucks.”

“I’m sorry,” the Doctor muttered into her hair and pressed her tightly against him with his arms around her waist.

“Me too.”

\------------

It had been a week, or at least that was what it felt like to Gemma, and they still hadn’t found any trace of Melody. The Doctor was growing restless and increasingly more frustrated, and Gemma didn’t know what to do.

Amy and Rory had at one point called the TARDIS and Gemma had talked with them for an hour about River Song, Melody and Demons Run. It was strange talking to them since they had known her for so long and she still knew so little about them.

It had been uncomfortable, when Amy had asked to talk to the Doctor, and Gemma had lied and told her he wasn’t there. No matter how much she tried, he wouldn’t talk to them.

When Gemma once again felt a familiar tingling at the tip of her fingers, she wished with everything inside of her that she didn’t have to leave. The Doctor needed her, he needed someone. But there was no way to stop it and Gemma was gone in a cloud of golden dust.


End file.
